OSHA Expects MSD Final Rule Approval By Budget Office 'Shortly,' Agency Official Says

OSHA anticipates that its planned final rule restoring the column for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) to injury recordkeeping forms will soon be approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a top agency official recently told construction industry and union stakeholders. The contentious proposal -- which industry has strongly pushed back against, citing legal issues in the rulemaking as well as paperwork and cost burdens on employers -- has been stuck in an extended OMB review process since this fall. “We expect that one to be out shortly,” Dorothy Dougherty, director of OSHA's Dire