Kickstart: Don't count out vaccination requirements yet

The Supreme Court may have tossed President Joe Biden's plans for widescale COVID-19 vaccination requirements at large businesses, but that doesn't mean mandates are completely dead.

Audrey LaForest, a reporter for our sister paper Automotive News (and former PN staff writer) writes that the court's opinion leaves open the potential for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue a narrower set of regulations for specific work environments, such as manufacturing. The court already upheld mandates for health care workers.

"At the very least, manufacturers can expect to be subject to citations for [OSHA] General Duty Clause violations where there are COVID outbreaks tied to workplace exposures," James Hermon, a member in Dykema's labor and employment practice group, told Automotive News. "It is also possible that states and localities will issue their own health and safety requirements, creating a confusing patchwork of regulation that companies with facilities in multiple locations will have to navigate."

In case you missed it, on Jan. 14, OSHA said it would levy fines against an Ohio automotive plastics supplier for a death related to a COVID outbreak at the plant. Officials from Sanoh America Inc. told PN's Steve Toloken OSHA did not indicate how it could place the blame on a workplace when there was a surge in cases across the community.

Two Canadian entrepreneurs and a Slovakian inventor have joined forces in a business that wants to eliminate the need for windshield washer fluid replacement bottles.

Rather than buying a bottle when you need more fluid (a bottle that may end up in a landfill rather than a recycling bin), EcoTank installs washer fluid refilling systems alongside gasoline pumps. Simply top off the fluid when you fill your fuel tank. An integrated billing system adds the fluid costs to your gas bill and you pay both at the same time.

Orangeville, Ontario, residents Jordon Francis and Robbie Mair said they saw garbage cans overflowing with washing fluid packaging at a local gas station and went looking for a more eco-friendly system. They found Richard Vámoš, a Slovakian inventor, who had come up with the EcoTank concept.

"If EcoTank was installed at 15 percent of gas stations in North America, 500 tons less plastic packaging for windshield washer fluid would be produced a year," the company says on its website.

The first North American EcoTank pump opened for business at a 7-Eleven fuel station in Orangeville in December.

We've written a lot over the years about Lego A/S products, sustainability efforts and manufacturing. But recently, a social media account has highlighted what it's like to work for Lego stores, including this tidbit: Retail employees get paid based on how the company as a whole is doing, not how an individual store does.

"So if you buy your Lego from a toy store or from a Walmart or from a bookstore, Lego store employees still benefit," TikTok user Aqil Dhanani says in one of a series of short videos about his experience. "Our job at the Lego store is not to sell you Lego; it's to make sure you have a good time."

He also discusses packaging — how the labels on a box provide employees with a quick snapshot of what's inside without having to memorize the entire store catalog — tips on how to get special sets and the work to help parents find Lego sets within their price point without upsetting their kids.

You can scroll through other items on Dhanani's page. While, yes, he's talking about toys, the stories also provide lessons any business owner could use when talking about brand image and keeping employees happy.