With a national opioid crisis that defies holistic solutions, the legalization of medicinal marijuana in more than 30 states and recreational marijuana in 10 states, increases in deadly overdoses in the workplace, changing state laws, confusion over OSHA’s anti-retaliatory drug testing rule, and concerns about medical privacy, no employer should think they are immune to the problem. In fact, according to the National Safety Council (NSC), 15.6% of American workers live with a substance disorder and The Hartford reports that 64% of HR professionals are ill-prepared to help a worker with an opioid addiction. These factors, coupled with a tight labor market and low unemployment, have led some employers to soften zero-tolerance policies for jobs where safety is not critical and there is a low risk of injury or error. The decision to relax zero-tolerance policies requires buy-in from company leadership and supervisors as well as serious evaluation of the consequences. Although the legalization of marijuana exponentially increases the complexity […]

November 19, 2018

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News
UNITEL

UNITEL Excited to Announce New Partner, National General Insurance

November 13, 2018

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Work Comp

Preliminary list of top ten OSHA violations includes eye and face protection for first time

Preliminary list of top ten OSHA violations includes eye and face protection for first time While the preliminary list of the Top 10 violations for Fiscal Year 2018 (Oct. 1, 2017 – Sept. 30, 2018) remains largely unchanged from 2017, there is a newcomer in tenth place. Eye and face protection surpassed electrical – wiring methods, which dropped off the top ten. Also, fall protection – training requirements, which was a newcomer last FY moved up from #9 to #8. Topping the list for the fifth year in a row is fall protection, a general requirements standard, which saw a 19.7% increase in citations from the previous FY. There was a significant increase – 25.4% – in citations related to ladders and a 30.1% increase in citations for violations of fall protection – training requirements. Overall, there was a 10.5% increase in the total number of violations. Here is the list compared with the FY 2017 figures: 1.Fall Protection – […]

October 25, 2018

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UNITEL

UNITEL Insurance welcomes Matt Gilbert as Risk Advisor

February 13, 2018

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UNICO Group appoints Tom Champoux as President

February 12, 2018

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UNITEL Client Spotlight: Lynxx

1. Brief description of your operations Lemonweir Valley Telephone Company was established in 1907 with the purpose of bringing telephone service to residents, farmers and various businesses in the rural areas of Juneau County, Wisconsin. The company was originally named New Lisbon Mutual Telephone company. The name was changed in 1931 to Lemonweir Valley Telephone Company. It is a stockholder owned company with many of the stockholders’ families having owned stock for multiple generations. Today there are more then 200 shareholders. As the company has grown over the years, Lemonweir Valley Telephone and LVT Corp (a subsidiary of Lemonweir Valley Telephone Company) created a DBA named Lynxx Networks. This name reflects both the local fiber network connecting its residential and business customers and the external statewide network provided by the Wisconsin Independent Network also known as WIN. Lynxx Networks provides voice, internet and television services. Its ILEC area is covered by a state of the art fiber optic network. As […]