Working conditions on Notably News

Working conditions

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We include updates on Sexual harassment, Child labour, Occupational safety and health, Sweatshop, Personal protective equipment, At-will employment, Remote work, Constructive dismissal, Forced labour, Labour law, Banishment room, Exploitation of labour, Wage slavery, Workplace bullying, Hostile work environment, Shift work sleep disorder ... and more.

January 2025	Personal protective equipment NIOSH published a Science Policy Update recommending employers use individual, quantitative fit testing to evaluate the attenuation received by workers from their hearing protection devices.
2022	Fall protection Nearly 1 in 5 workplace deaths occurred in the construction industry, with 38.4% of these fatalities attributed to falls, slips, and trips.
2022	Safe-in-Sound Award Northrop Grumman's St. Augustine site received the Safe-in-Sound Award (Excellence) for comprehensive noise management strategies including ongoing monitoring, noise controls, buy-quiet equipment purchases, hearing protection, audiometry analysis, and engaging employees at all levels in hearing conservation initiatives.
March 3 2022	Safe-in-Sound Award Michael Lawrence and Jamie Anderson from Rational Acoustics LLC received the Safe-in-Sound Award (Innovation) for developing audio measurement software addressing noise risks for live sound professionals, contributing to the World Health Organization's World Hearing Day theme 'To hear for life, listen with care!'
2021	Fall protection 5,190 fatal workplace injuries recorded in the United States, with 680 (approximately 13%) resulting from falls from elevations.
October 2021	Crunch Eidos-Montréal and Eidos-Sherbrooke became some of the first major game development studios to announce a shift to a four-day workweek, aimed at improving developers' quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020	Safe-in-Sound Award The Multilateral Medical Operations Panel's Acoustics Sub-Working Group for the International Space Station received the Safe-in-Sound Award (Innovation) for monitoring ISS noise levels, identifying noise hazards, testing equipment, developing noise reduction solutions, recommending hearing protection, and performing audiometric testing.
2020	Medical gown The First Affiliated Hospital of the Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou developed their own COVID-19 prevention protocol and specialized medical equipment, including PPE gowns, masks, hoods, and goggles.
March 30 2020	Medical gown CEN and CENELEC, in collaboration with the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, made COVID-19 PPE standards documents freely available to help address protective equipment shortages and facilitate manufacturing conversion for urgent medical needs.
March 17 2020	Medical gown Israeli hospital documented having full Tyvek personal protective equipment (PPE) gowns during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating preparedness for medical protection.
January 2020	Medical gown Doctors in Wuhan were provided with full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) gown suits during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, preparing for medical responses to the emerging health crisis.
2019	Crunch International Game Developers Association survey revealed 40 percent of game developers experienced crunch at least once in the past year, with only 8 percent receiving extra pay for crunch hours.
2019	Crunch A study by Take This revealed that 53% of game developers consider crunch time an expected part of their employment, highlighting the normalization of excessive work hours in the video game industry.
2019	Crunch Game Developers Conference survey reveals nearly half of developers still work over 40-hour weeks, with 75% experiencing at least one period of working more than 40 hours in a single week.
June 2019	Medical gown New European standards (EN 13795-1 and EN 13795-2) were established for surgical clothing and drapes, specifying requirements and test methods for surgical gowns and clean air suits.
2018	Sweatshop China planned to raise minimum wage by approximately 7% in 10 provinces by the end of the year.
2018	Safe-in-Sound Award The partnership for the Safe-in-Sound Award was extended to include the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC).
2018	Crunch Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, publicly stated that employees worked 100-hour weeks to complete Red Dead Redemption 2, drawing widespread criticism for harsh working conditions.
2018	Crunch Telltale Games closed, with excessive crunch potentially contributing to the studio's collapse.
October 2018	Crunch Families of Rockstar developers for Red Dead Redemption 2 publicly express concerns about crunch time, drawing parallels to the previous 'Rockstar Spouse' case.
2017	Crunch CD Projekt RED's CEO Marcin Iwiński described video game development as 'hard-core work' in a New York Times article, justifying the challenges of meeting development deadlines.
May 2017	Sweatshop Mama Cash and The Clean Clothes Campaign organized The Women Power Fashion Pop-up in Amsterdam, creating an immersive sweatshop experience to raise awareness about worker conditions.
2016	Safe-in-Sound Award 3M Alexandria plant received the Safe-in-Sound Award (Excellence) for reducing noise exposure by 12-14 dBA across 24 departments, with cost-effective initiatives that resulted in 199 of 203 employees no longer requiring enrollment in the Hearing Conservation Program.
2015	Safe-in-Sound Award United Technologies Corporation (UTC) received the Safe-in-Sound Award (Excellence) for reducing employee exposure to hazardous chemicals and industrial noise.
2015	Workplace bullying National Health Interview Survey finds a higher prevalence of workplace threats, bullying, or harassment among women workers (8%) compared to men.
2014	Safe-in-Sound Award Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Linthicum, Maryland) received the Safe-in-Sound Award (Excellence) for implementing a process to identify and control hazardous noise sources, effectively reducing worker noise exposures and minimizing the need for a hearing loss prevention program.
2014	Crunch IGDA survey shows 81% of game developers experienced crunch in the past two years, with 50% considering it an expected part of their job. The average work hours have slightly decreased, with 35% now working 50 to 65 hours per week.
December 31 2014	Fall protection Conclusion of the decade-long study on workplace falls, revealing critical insights into fall protection failures in industrial settings.
2013	Sweatshop Bangladesh enforced stricter labor laws following the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed 1,135 people, leading to factory safety checks and shutdowns.
2012	Safe-in-Sound Award Colgate-Palmolive received the Safe-in-Sound Award (Excellence) for implementing an online training in noise control engineering and adopting a company-wide 85-dBA noise exposure limit. In 2013, OSHA highlighted this recipient in their Technical Manual.
2011	Crunch Kaos Studios shut down, with crunch potentially being a factor in the studio's demise.
2010	Crunch Core Design studio closed, with work-related stress and crunch potentially playing a role in its dissolution.

This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Personal protective equipment, Fall protection, Medical gown, Safe-in-Sound Award, Sweatshop, Workplace bullying & Crunch (video games), which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.