A top union official is urging EPA to follow OSHA’s approach to assessing workplace risks from toxic chemicals rather than “reinventing the wheel” for the TSCA program, saying a new framework would create unnecessary difficulties for employers and workers alike, while other experts warned that contradictory systems will frustrate data-sharing.
November 15, 2026
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected unions’ bid to reinstate OSHA’s COVID-19 healthcare emergency temporary standard (ETS) and impose a strict deadline for the agency to issue a permanent replacement, holding that the OSH Act imposes no “clear duty” on officials to take either step.
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Two Universal Health Services (UHS) subsidiaries are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to reverse an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) decision that they say created a “near-boundless” test for when multiple companies can be considered a joint employer under the OSH Act.
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OSHA finalized a “complete overhaul” of its handbook for investigating whistleblower retaliation complaints, incorporating a long list of previously separate guidance into the core manual and setting new procedural requirements for various steps of the process, triggering a mandate for state plans to adopt their own version of the new document.
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South Carolina is asking a federal district court to block what it says is an unlawful campaign by OSHA to require states to increase their maximum work-safety penalties to at least the federal maximum, claiming that the agency is going far beyond what Congress allowed under the OSH Act mandate for state plans to be “at least as effective” as its program.
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OSHA is seeking a massive $1.2 million penalty from the discount retail chain Family Dollar over alleged violations at two Ohio stores that the agency says are the latest in “a long and disturbing history” of similar safety hazards at the company’s facilities, underscoring the Biden administration’s efforts to step up the agency’s enforcement program.
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OSHA is seeking $110,630 in penalties for an ammonia leak at a Georgia poultry plant that the agency says hospitalized two workers and forced dozens more to evacuate, as the agency prepares to pursue an update to the process safety management (PSM) standard at the heart of the case, in parallel with EPA’s reforms to its own facility-safety rule.
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Oil sector groups are joining industry attacks on EPA’s decision to drop an assumption that workers will use personal protective equipment (PPE) from Trump-era TSCA evaluations, echoing claims that the new policy is unlawful and irrational while also asserting it is impossible to fit with the existing risk reviews and requires a new, multi-year process.
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OSHA is seeking nominees to fill four seats on its National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) that are slated to become vacant in January, just as the panel is ramping up its work to provide the agency with advice on a heat danger standard long sought by labor advocates and Democrats.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has upheld a General Duty Clause citation that OSHA filed against a Pennsylvania construction firm in the wake of a fatal equipment collapse, holding that the citation for failure to perform required maintenance is valid regardless of whether that failure caused the accident.
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