OSHA is promising “enforcement discretion” to employers who cannot perform otherwise mandatory fit tests on powered respirators because of ongoing test equipment shortages, as long as the businesses make “good-faith efforts” to obtain the required supplies and reduce workers’ need to use respiratory protection gear.
November 15, 2026
OSHA has announced citations against an additional 28 employers for violations related to the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating its pace of enforcement -- especially against health care and nursing home facilities -- amid accusations that the agency is not doing enough to address workplace exposures to the disease.
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OSHA has narrowed its guidance on when employers must report COVID-19 hospitalizations to the agency as “work-related,” setting a requirement that a case is only reportable when it comes within 24 hours of a workplace exposure to the virus despite the disease’s long incubation time that means infections take a week or more to manifest.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s (OSHRC) third unanimous decision in less than a week rejecting an OSHA fine for employers’ alleged failure to install safety equipment is drawing a warm welcome from employer attorneys, with one calling it evidence of a “trend” toward scrutiny of agency enforcement decisions.
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Oregon has released an updated draft of its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that extends to all employers the requirement to craft exposure risk assessments for the virus but removes mandatory paid leave for workers subject to medical quarantine orders, among other changes to the rule slated to take effect Oct. 12.
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Democrats have unveiled a scaled-back version of their COVID-19 relief package in what could be their final effort to restart negotiations with the White House ahead of the November elections, but even the more limited bill maintains the demand for an OSHA standard to address the virus, potentially dooming it in the Senate.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has for the second time in a matter of days struck down an OSHA citation for an industrial accident because the agency failed to prove that a worker’s risky behavior was part of “normal operation” for the facility, underscoring the potentially high bar to make that showing.
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Critics of Virginia’s first-in-the-nation emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 are challenging the policy in court, arguing that it infringes on a host of constitutional rights and that the state bypassed its own rulemaking procedures to enact the policy.
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Lawmakers have agreed to extend current funding for OSHA and other executive agencies to Dec. 11, delaying a battle over potential fiscal year 2021 budget cuts or boosts until after the election -- and likely after the Senate battle over confirming a successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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OSHA is continuing to unveil citations against employers over alleged failures to protect their workers from COVID-19, but labor unions and other Trump administration foes say the small financial penalties the agency is seeking are further evidence that its response to the pandemic has been unacceptably weak.
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