Daily News

Labor groups are opposing a pair of industry motions seeking to intervene in a legal challenge to OSHA's final rule strengthening its silica standards, arguing that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and cement and concrete producers could have filed their own lawsuits and should not be allowed to expand the scope of the litigation underway if they are allowed to intervene on behalf of industry petitioners.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is again reviewing OSHA's final rule to protect workers from slips, trips and falls at work-sites -- one of the leading causes of workplace injuries -- a measure that industry officials had not expected to see released this year before OSHA Chief David Michaels said recently that he hopes it will be issued soon.

According to OMB's website, the office June 22 formally received OSHA's final rule “Walking Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems (Slips, Trips, and Fall Prevention).”

President Obama has signed the bipartisan Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) overhaul into law, shifting focus to how EPA will implement the extensive new authorities under the law for addressing the safety of chemicals -- with at least one Senate proponent of the law vowing to closely track the agency's implementation.

Small business representatives advising a federal panel weighing possible changes to OSHA's process safety management (PSM) facility safety rule are arguing a major overhaul of the program is unnecessary and could bring adverse consequences, including high costs, burdens to farmers and increased dangers from transporting chemicals long distances.

As EPA prepares to issue a final rule strengthening its facility accident prevention program, producers of small-batch chemicals are defending the safety of their operations in a bid to resist EPA and OSHA suggestions that production of their products is less safe than manufacture of chemicals in large batch continuous processing.

A federal panel weighing how potential changes to OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) facility accident prevention program will affect small businesses is requesting data on the cost of complying with the agency's controversial 2015 policy narrowing a PSM exemption for retailers, suggesting the costs are “modest” given facilities already comply with a similar Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule.

Correction Appended

An attorney who has represented major industry groups is urging a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel advising OSHA to limit calls for any additional illness and injury reporting and record-keeping mandates on employers, arguing that current rules adequately identify risks and that federal officials should better use existing data to assess the causes of common injuries and work with employers to prevent those incidents.

OSHA is seeking to bolster its tracking of employee injury and illness reporting to prevent workplace accidents, with steps including the sponsorship of a new National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on improving surveillance of worker injuries, and possibly looking at ways to increase the role of workers' compensation insurers in accident prevention.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is seeking to intervene in support of a brick industry lawsuit challenging OSHA's recently-issued final rule overhauling its silica standards, arguing that the regulation will impose more than $1 billion in compliance costs each year and affect dozens of industries.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) -- a key figure in crafting the final Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bill and also a top Democrat on the Senate appropriations panel that oversees EPA -- says the agency's current funding is adequate to start implementing the overhaul, and that it is unlikely to get a budget boost in upcoming spending legislation.

EPA is aligning its hazard classification system for industrial facilities' reporting of hazardous chemicals under the agency's emergency planning rule with categories OSHA adopted in a 2012 update to its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS).

Senate appropriators have advanced a fiscal year 2017 spending bill that continues an effort begun last year to block OSHA implementation of controversial policy interpretations that expand the agency's process safety management (PSM) standards until they are codified in rulemakings, raising doubts about the policies' continued implementation.

Lawmakers are also seeking to stymie an administration plan for federal agencies to consider labor safety violations in procurement decisions.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) is touting regulatory certainty for chemical manufacturers and other proponents of chemical safety reform as a major win in the final legislation to overhaul the decades old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which the Senate approved June 7 and sent to President Obama for his expected signature.

An industry attorney is casting doubt on the prospects that expected legal challenges will succeed in blocking OSHA's new electronic record-keeping and reporting rule for worker injuries, noting the agency has broad authority to require record-keeping.

During a June 7 webinar on OSHA's May 12 rule revising its “Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses” regulation, attorney Eric Conn said he expects the rule will impose unnecessary new burdens and obligations on employers and will lead to increased use of company records in enforcement actions.

Construction industry and labor groups are raising competing arguments in their lawsuits challenging OSHA's recent overhaul of its silica standards with labor groups arguing that the agency's long-awaited rule failed to go far enough to protect workers, and industry saying the agency has failed to adequately justify risk estimates underpinning the rule.

The non-binding issue statements filed May 31 outline arguments that industry and labor will pursue in two of the numerous consolidated challenges to OSHA's March 25 rule “Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica.”

A federal appeals court has stayed the chemical industry's challenge to OSHA's controversial memo for determining whether a chemical is present in sufficient concentrations that a facility is subject to its process safety management (PSM) standards so the parties can continue ongoing settlement talks.

Civil rights and health and safety advocates who have sought to strengthen OSHA's controversial forthcoming guide to assist federal agencies in weighing labor violations in contract decisions are pressing White House officials for a strong final guide that assures advocates have an avenue for assisting in reporting contractors' violations to federal officials.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Office of Inspector General (IG), in a new report to Congress, says it has “significant concern” about OSHA's ability to protect worker health and safety because the agency's enforcement officials can reach “only a fraction” of work sites.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is urging federal regulators to improve safety on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs by collecting and publicly sharing facility data on incidents that suggest accident risk, echoing advocates' calls to improve safety through greater disclosure.

With average temperatures rising as a result of climate change, a top OSHA official is warning employers to ensure they take adequate precautions to protect their workers from heat-related injury or death, or face risk of enforcement actions and penalties.

Kelly Schnapp, director of OSHA's Office of Science and Technology Assessment, told a May 26 webinar sponsored by the White House that employers have an obligation under the OSH Act's “General Duty” clause to protect workers from heat-related risks.