Unions and worker safety groups are praising President Joe Biden’s selection of California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) chief Doug Parker to lead the federal OSHA and are urging him to swiftly enact a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), which employers’ attorneys fear Parker could model on Cal/OSHA’s strict virus policy.
November 15, 2026
OSHA has announced its first whistleblower stakeholder meeting under the Biden administration, giving unions, worker safety groups and others a fresh venue to advance calls for dramatically strengthening the agency’s program that protects employees from retaliations for reporting violations of workplace safety rules.
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Worker safety groups are urging OSHA to issue “within the next few weeks” an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19, arguing the already-delayed rulemaking is urgently needed, following reports that new Labor Secretary Marty Walsh has directed the agency to update the ETS to reflect new research on the virus.
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An industry attorney says chemical makers and users could soon face an “absurd,” onerous mandate to assess the hazards posed by chemicals they produce or use, not only in their own operations but in all possible downstream uses and combinations -- a duty he says could be aimed at supporting EPA’s risk evaluations of existing chemicals.
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Former Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) Chairman James Sullivan says the Biden OSHA’s plan to step up enforcement, particularly on COVID-19 worker exposures, poses an “interesting” test for OSHRC and its precedent setting a high bar for the agency to sustain penalties in some enforcement cases.
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A federal district court judge has dismissed a suit filed by Pennsylvania meat-packing plant workers that aimed to force OSHA to take action against their employer for inadequate protections against COVID-19, finding the OSH Act does not allow such suits unless an inspector makes a formal finding of “imminent danger” at the site.
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A federal district judge has scrapped the Trump Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) line-speed waiver for some pork slaughterhouses over its refusal to consider threats to worker safety during the rulemaking process -- a win for unions that said the policy was unlawful -- and is giving the Biden administration 90 days to decide its next steps.
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EPA’s acting chemicals chief is detailing a series of steps to toughen reviews of new chemicals, including dropping what critics said were overly optimistic assumptions on workers’ use of protective gear, expanding the scope of the reviews and increasing the use of enforcement orders after approving pre-manufacture notices (PMNs).
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A newly published OSHA letter crafted during the final days of the Trump administration says the agency’s injury and illness recordkeeping mandate applies only once in situations where a worker suffers multiple injuries days apart but stemming from the same event, so that companies do not have to “double report” injuries.
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Former Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) Chairman James Sullivan has left the panel to return to private practice, opening a seat on the three-person panel more than a month before his term was slated to expire and setting the stage for President Joe Biden to name his first OSHRC nominee.
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