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Ridgemark Insurance Services
Lenders Crack Down on Insurance Requirements
Lenders are tightening commercial insurance requirements for borrowers to ensure that they are adequately covered as property, liability and business interruption claims costs rise across the board. With lenders tightening their standards, commercial property buyers...
Workers Eating Lunch at Desks Can Lead to Wage and Hour Lawsuits
With wage and hour litigation increasing in California, employers need to be especially careful of employees who eat lunch at their desks and work while eating. While it's not an issue for exempt employees, it is for hourly workers, who should be required to take...
Cal/OSHA Urges Employers to Protect Outdoor Workers Against Heat Illness
As we get closer to another scorching California summer, Cal/OSHA is reminding employers with outdoor workers to take precautions to protect them against heat illness. California employers need to be especially mindful as Cal/OSHA has workplace safety regulations...
Bureau Recommends Workers’ Comp Benchmark Rate Hike
California's workers' compensation rate-making agency has recommended that average benchmark "pure premium" rates increase by 10.4% for policies incepting on or after Sept. 1, 2026. The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau cited an increase in cumulative...
Report, Investigate Near Misses to Improve Safety
One of the most important workplace safety tools you can implement is reporting near misses and correcting the factors that lead to them. A near miss is an event that could have led to a workplace injury, illness or death. While you are not required to report near...
Hand and Power Tool Safety Can Avoid Amputations, Worse
While tools used in construction, agriculture, manufacturing and other industries make workers' lives easier, they can also pose a danger of injury or death if used incorrectly or if they malfunction, to the worker using the tool, co-workers and the public. Injured...
AI Deepfakes Fuel New Wave of Workplace Harassment
The rise of generative artificial intelligence is creating a troubling new category of workplace risk: employees using AI-generated "deepfakes" to harass, humiliate or retaliate against co-workers. While harassment claims are nothing new, employers should be aware...
NLRB Reinstates 2020 Rule on Joint-Employer Liability
The National Labor Relations Board has formally reinstated its 2020 rule governing when a company is deemed a joint employer under labor law, loosening standards put in place during the Biden administration. This pro-business shift will make it harder for workers to...
Why Safety in Design Should Lead Every Construction Project
Too often, safety on construction sites is treated as a field problem managed after work begins. By then, many of the most significant risks are already built into the job. Safety in design flips that approach by identifying and eliminating hazards before ground is...
How to Avoid Employee Retaliation Claims
Retaliation is the most common employment-related claim filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and often accompanies discrimination or harassment complaints. For employers, these claims can be more difficult to defend than the underlying...