OSHA is opening new rounds of nominations to its advisory committees for worker safety in the maritime and construction sectors ahead of term expirations for the full rosters of both panels this spring, as the agency is also preparing to fill four spots on its influential National Advisory Committee on Safety and Health (NACOSH).
November 15, 2026
The United Steelworkers (USW) is urging OSHA to quickly propose and enact a sweeping overhaul of its process safety management (PSM) standard, arguing that the current “activity-based” model is inadequate and that the agency instead should require employers to show they have eliminated process safety dangers “to the greatest extent feasible.”
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Republicans on the House labor panel offered a preview of their potential agenda as the incoming majority during a recent workforce protection hearing, as top GOP members accused Democrats of using safety concerns as an excuse to expand union membership while decrying the Biden OSHA’s focus on regulation over compliance assistance as “authoritarian.”
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Employer attorneys are highlighting a recent decision by an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) judge as a rare signal of the agency’s burden to show workers should be considered employees and not contractors under the OSH Act, just as the Labor Department is weighing a new rulemaking to define those categories.
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Employers and trade groups are warning OSHA against moving forward with planned reforms to the process safety management (PSM) standard, arguing that they would make the rule less flexible without proof they are needed for safety, and that it must ensure the PSM program remains aligned with EPA’s risk management program (RMP) facility safety rule.
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An Ohio firm is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to hold that Congress violated the Constitution when it directed OSHA to set workplace safety standards as “reasonably necessary or appropriate,” arguing that the OSH Act lacks any “limiting principle” on agency discretion, while also downplaying potential impacts of a future ruling in its favor.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is weighing OSHA’s leeway to amend claims in its enforcement citations during the administrative appeal process, as an Ohio employer seeks to overturn a citation for a 2018 crane accident where it says a mid-litigation revision deprived it of “fair notice” of the agency’s allegations.
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OSHA is touting a recent district court decision allowing a novel whistleblower enforcement suit over COVID-19 infection risks at a New York healthcare center to proceed despite the employee’s agreement not to sue over the alleged retaliation on her own behalf, calling it a “significant” victory for officials’ authority to prosecute similar cases across the country.
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A new report from the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) harshly criticizes OSHA’s enforcement work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, charging that it “did not sufficiently protect workers from COVID-19 health hazards” and floating five recommendations for policy fixes to address those failures.
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OSHA is again attacking South Carolina’s lawsuit targeting the requirement for OSH Act state plans to match the federal agency’s maximum penalty amounts, arguing ahead of a Nov. 16 hearing that the state’s arguments against that mandate are untethered from the “four corners” of its case and thus should be summarily rejected.
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