The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has issued a new decision raising the bar for OSHA to enforce its rule that requires safe storage of material in tiers to prevent it from falling on workers, the latest in a series of decisions limiting use of existing standards on the eve of the Biden administration.
November 15, 2026
As the average age of workers rises due to delayed retirements, the economic recession and other factors, employers’ attorneys are warning companies that OSHA could step up enforcement related to ergonomics hazards that can pose a greater risk to older workers even though the agency lacks an explicit ergonomics standard.
Date:
For OSHA’s 50th anniversary, President-elect Joe Biden is renewing his pledge to quickly direct the agency to consider whether to issue an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that would mandate workplace COVID-19 protections for employees, while also vowing to ramp up OSHA’s enforcement efforts and staffing levels.
Date:
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Director John Howard is warning employers against strictly applying guidance NIOSH issued with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on reducing workplace COVID-19 infections, saying new research on the virus can render such guides “stale.”
Date:
OSHA is facing calls from public commenters to adopt a “prevention through design” (PtD) approach for its powered truck safety standard and incorporate several related data-gathering requirements in the rule based on an existing federal program that so far has focused mainly on building safety.
Date:
OSHA is seeking nominees to its Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH) as 14 of the panel’s 15 members near the expiration of their two-year terms, opening the possibility that the agency’s current leaders could appoint ACCSH’s new membership ahead of the transition to the Biden administration.
Date:
OSHA is rolling out a new enforcement initiative that will automatically ramp up inspections of employers that fail to pay monetary penalties for past violations, as part of a broader Department of Labor (DOL) push to bolster its debt collection programs.
Date:
OSHA has announced its latest sector-specific partnership program, targeting worker safety conditions at wireless infrastructure like cellular towers in a bid to “eliminate” injuries and fatalities from a host of hazards just as many communications companies are looking to build new infrastructure that supports 5G cellular service.
Date:
Lawmakers have agreed to a short-term COVID-19 recovery package that drops both Republicans’ demand for employer liability waivers and Democrats’ proposed aid to state and local governments, teeing up a potential return to that long-running battle in the early days of President-elect Joe Biden’s term.
Date:
OSHA is updating its Site-Specific Targeting (SST) workplace inspection program to add new criteria for inspecting employers based on increases in days away, restricted or transferred (DART) among their employees, and to allow inspectors to make a case-by-case decision to switch site inspections to records reviews “in limited situations.”
Date: