A bipartisan group of House moderates is backing a compromise proposal on COVID-19 relief including a limited employee liability waiver with a role for OSHA, signaling potential movement toward new negotiations after President Donald Trump called on Republicans to accept a higher price tag for a consensus bill.
November 15, 2026
OSHA is revising its 2010 standards governing the use of cranes and derricks to add a host of exemptions for railroad work, reflecting both a 2014 settlement with the railroad industry and recent rulemakings by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that the agency says preempted its authority in many areas.
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OSHA has issued what appears to be its first citation to an employer for failing to protect workers from COVID-19 infections under the OSH Act’s general duty clause, a provision that attorneys have predicted will be the agency’s main authority for enforcing its array of sector-specific virus guidances during the pandemic.
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The Senate has rejected Republicans’ “skinny” COVID-19 relief bill along party lines with Democrats decrying an employer liability waiver against OSHA enforcement as one of many “poison pills” that doomed the proposal, casting doubt on whether Congress will be able to approve any further virus-related relief bill this year.
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The pro-regulatory group Public Citizen is suing the Department of Labor (DOL) seeking release of records from the development of OSHA’s enforcement memo that promised not to take legal action against meat and poultry plants that make “good-faith” efforts to comply with federal COVID-19 workplace safety guidance.
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Several states are starting to use the threat of enforcement to implement non-binding COVID-19 workplace safety measures including guidance documents issued by OSHA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says an attorney who sees the efforts as a move by the states to enforcing voluntary safety steps.
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Michigan’s state workplace safety agency is targeting its COVID-19 enforcement on retail businesses through an “emphasis program” focused primarily on restaurants with grocery stores, gas stations, and convenience stores as secondary priorities, and applying the state’s existing safety rules rather than issuing a pandemic-specific standard.
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Oregon officials say their recently proposed COVID-19 workplace safety standard is largely designed to “formalize and standardize” pandemic employee protection guidance from OSHA and other agencies while adding specific requirements for social distancing, medical removal and infection-control planning.
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The Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is warning that the COVID-19 pandemic has set off a flood of whistleblower complaints to OSHA even as the agency’s capacity to handle new complaints has declined, and is urging officials to bolster that capacity through new hiring and administrative measures.
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Amazon.com employees are urging a federal district court to reject the company’s arguments that their claims of inadequate COVID-19 protections at a New York City warehouse fall within OSHA’s “primary jurisdiction,” saying their claims that the retailer is violating state laws and pandemic orders are separate from any agency role.
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