Labor unions are suing the Biden OSHA over its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), setting the stage for a ruling on whether regulators and the White House lawfully found that only medical workers face “grave danger” from the pandemic, just as newly released draft materials show officials originally sought an economy-wide ETS.
November 15, 2026
House and Senate Republicans are pushing the Biden administration to appeal a federal district judge’s ruling that vacated a controversial line-speed waiver program at pork plants over worker-safety fears, arguing that allowing the waivers to end would cut the sector’s capacity and cost farmers as much as $80 million in lost sales this year.
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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is seeking data and expert advice on use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by “underserved” workers -- a project that could aid not just workplace regulations but also EPA’s effort to tighten its approach to PPE in its chemical risk assessments and rules.
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OSHA will publish its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) in the June 21 Federal Register, making the rule effective for the healthcare sector upon publication, meaning the 14-day compliance deadline for most of its provisions will arrive on July 5.
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The Senate labor committee backed Doug Parker’s nomination as the next head of OSHA on a mostly party-line vote June 16, setting the stage for his likely confirmation by the full Senate later this summer, just as the agency is laying out its first rulemaking agenda in the Biden era following its release of the long-awaited COVID-19 standard.
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OSHA plans to propose in December a rule to restore Obama-era electronic recordkeeping and reporting mandates that the Trump administration largely rolled back in 2019, according to its newly released Unified Agenda of regulatory actions that also targets December for proposing a long-delayed infectious-disease standard.
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Unions and their allies are pushing back on OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19, arguing that limiting the rule to healthcare workers leaves at-risk workers in other industries unprotected, even as employers’ attorneys are warning that the agency could soon tighten enforcement across all industry sectors.
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OSHA has released its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare employers, alongside new general-industry guidance for the pandemic that focuses on vaccination and recommends infection-control measures only for workplaces where some employees are not yet vaccinated.
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Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says OSHA will release June 10 a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that applies only to the medical sector, rejecting arguments from unions and safety groups that a general-industry standard is still needed despite widespread vaccinations.
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Anonymous workers at a Pennsylvania meat plant who sued OSHA over its decision not to take enforcement action over what they said was an “imminent danger” of COVID-19 infections there are appealing a federal district judge’s dismissal of the case, setting up a rare precedential decision on whether the OSH Act allows such suits.
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