OSHA has updated its COVID-19 guidance to employers by adding a provision urging mandatory cloth face coverings for workers as a “source control” measure to protect against exposure to the virus, saying studies have shown the coverings to be effective at containing the spread of the coronavirus.
November 15, 2026
The halt in Congress’ negotiations over a coronavirus response bill means supporters of either a legislative mandate for either OSHA issuing a standard for worker COVID-19 protections or employer virus liability waivers are unlikely to quickly see progress at the federal level, turning focus to states’ rules addressing the pandemic.
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Several recent administrative law judge (ALJ) rulings scrapping OSHA citations against the Postal Service (USPS) for exposing mail carriers to excessive heat could end the agency’s longstanding reliance on a National Weather Service (NWS) guide for determining the severity of heat exposures.
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OSHA is touting a new decision from an administrative law judge (ALJ) that held a New York flooring maker liable for falsely claiming to have corrected a series of prior workplace violations, calling it a marker for the importance of addressing identified safety hazards following an enforcement action.
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OSHA is asking a federal district court to reject a lawsuit that seeks to mandate enforcement action against a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant over fears about inadequate worker protections against COVID-19, arguing that the workers have not met the OSH Act’s “high bar” to override regulators’ enforcement discretion.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected the AFL-CIO’s bid for rehearing in its suit aiming to force OSHA to craft a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), shifting focus from the case back to Congress’ negotiations over potentially mandating a virus standard in the next pandemic response bill.
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An official with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) says the state’s novel emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 that could be a model for other states focuses largely on mandatory infection control plans for all workplaces that carry at least a “medium” infection risk.
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The House has approved its fiscal year 2021 budget for OSHA with amendments that would boost the agency’s whistleblower programs and require issuance of a binding workplace standard for COVID-19, setting up an eventual clash with the Senate although that chamber has yet to release its own slate of funding bills.
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Labor unions and the group Public Citizen are asking a federal district court to scrap the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) program that allows poultry slaughterhouses to raise their line speeds above regulatory maximums, saying it violates a 2014 rule for the sector that the Trump administration never withdrew or amended.
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Democrats and Republicans are taking hard lines on the employer liability waiver in the GOP’s newly unveiled COVID-19 relief bill, posing the risk of a stalemate on the next virus economic relief bill as Democrats say the waiver is a “non-starter” while the GOP counters that it must be included in the legislation.
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