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Ridgemark Insurance Services
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...
Cyber Criminals Use Data to Fine-Tune Extortion Demands
Cyber criminals are increasingly stealing companies' data to bolster their ransomware extortion demands, according to a new report by cyber insurer Resilience. As part of these tactics, hackers are infiltrating company databases before launching attacks to better...
Cal/OSHA Proposes New First-Aid Kit Rules
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board is in the final stages of approving updates to its first-aid kit rules that could take effect later this year. The proposal aims to ensure that kits are easily located in the workplace and accessible within three or four minutes from any...