OSHA has issued a controversial interpretation of its recordkeeping mandate effectively telling host employers that if they are responsible for assigning day-to-day tasks to temporary workers, they and not the staffing firm have the duty to keep records of work site injuries and illnesses.
The move -- which OSHA says reflects longtime policy -- dovetails with a broader OSHA effort to make sure hazards to which temporary workers may be subject are properly addressed through accurate records.
Safety activists worry the Environmental Protection Agency will deny their long-running request to include in an upcoming revised rule a mandate for using inherently safer technologies (IST) to reduce risks of disasters at chemical plants, an issue on which OSHA has also faced pressure as part of interagency talks on safety.
Advocates say EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy hinted at the lack of an IST mandate at a recent meeting.
OSHA's final rule issued Monday setting new parameters for whistleblower protection in the transportation and rail sectors comes amid increasing attention to the agency's anti-retaliation programs, with concern reportedly growing among field staff about resource constraints and the program's overall effectiveness in enforcing the OSH Act and numerous other federal laws. The rule adds new provisions providing whistleblowers greater access to data regarding the progress of their complaints, which tackles a key concern for whistleblower advocates.
Federal chemical safety officials are on the defensive again over their handling of deployment decisions following fires and explosions, with critics questioning the extent of their involvement after a chemistry lab fire at a northern Virginia high school injured several students and asking why they did not send investigators to the scene.
GOP lawmakers on the House workforce panel passed a bill along largely partisan lines Wednesday (Oct. 28) that would peel back a highly contentious decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that expands the meaning of “joint employer” and pins a share of responsibility for workplace conditions on franchise corporations.
House and Senate lawmakers passed a little-noticed measure that will effectively let OSHA hike maximum penalties by roughly 81 percent, in order to catch up with inflation since 1990, as part of their final budget compromise last week.
The legislative change means OSHA has the congressional go-ahead to issue an implementing rule that amounts to an increase in penalties for alleged willful, repeat and serious violations of OSHA standards. Safety and health activists have long sought such an increase. Annual adjustments going forward are also established.
OSHA health experts are pressing employers, particularly in the health care sector, to ensure stringent protections are in place to keep seasonal influenza from spreading, and also point to the potential spread of influenza A (H3N2) variant virus, a concern that been the subject of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitoring efforts.
The pesticide producers’ group CropLife America is raising concern about the Environmental Protection Agency's use of epidemiological studies to retain a stringent safety factor in draft risk reviews of seven organophosphate pesticides, including chemicals such as chlorpyrifos, which OSHA has been pressured to more tightly regulate.
EPA is using epidemiological data in studying potential impact on workers and other populations from the pesticides in question.
New launches of U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) disaster investigations have ground to a halt while top career staff who have been locked out of their regular duties during a probe of agency infighting remain on administrative leave, an advocacy group charged Thursday (Oct. 29), a day after the officials' leave was extended to mid-November. But CSB Chair Vanessa Sutherland asserts in an email to Inside OSHA Online that putting the top officials on leave has not hindered progress on new probes.
Industry advocates want OSHA to carefully scrutinize the myriad of legal challenges the agency faces in trying to either update workplace chemical exposure limits or otherwise pressure employers into adopting lower caps than regulations currently require.
A late-hour deal among congressional leaders and the White House to raise the nation's debt ceiling and peel back budget constraints on agencies caused by sequestration effectively kills a plan by conservative House Republicans to freeze new regulations by the Obama administration and head off “midnight rules” in the lame-duck period after next year's election.
OSHA has lost a case in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals over an interpretation that led to inspectors citing an employer for allegedly violating machine guarding standards, but the court reinforced in principle the longstanding doctrine deferring to agencies' understanding of their own regulations. The case tested the limits of OSHA making novel interpretations of what its standards require, and closely examined what constitutes fair notice of the agency's position before citing employers.
Several state OSHA plans are reportedly looking into revising state safety regulations to lower the trigger height for general fall protection in building activities to six feet, in line with federal requirements, with Oregon poised to formally make the change as soon as next year.
A band of conservative House Republicans wants to freeze major new regulations until mid-2017 -- a plan that if passed could cripple OSHA priorities like new silica controls and electronic recordkeeping -- as a condition of raising the nation's debt ceiling as Washington hurtles toward the possibility of a first-ever debt default.
OSHA should work to close identified gaps in regulations to better safeguard above-ground storage tanks, federal chemical safety experts looking into the circumstances of a 2009 gasoline tank explosion in Puerto Rico say.
An advocacy group for public-sector employees has filed a complaint with the federal government calling for an end to the months-long involuntary, paid administrative leave of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board's (CSB) top staff director, the latest turn in recent turmoil at the investigative agency charged with issuing workplace safety recommendations to prevent chemical disasters.
Federal safety and health researchers are targeting musculoskeletal injuries, slips, trips and falls, and other major concerns in the aging work force as NIOSH launches a virtual center as part of the agency's Total Worker Health initiative, with officials hoping to partner with OSHA in developing new workplace informational materials.
Many occupational health experts are urging OSHA to look into control banding approaches to tackle antiquated chemical exposure limits in the workplace, as agency officials explore possible regulatory action down the road.
OSHA again faces delays in issuing a new rule aimed at reducing the incidence of workplace slips, trips and falls, with White House budget officials extending review of the regulatory package for an unspecified period.
An enforcement case before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) will explore to an unusual extent the limits of OSHA using guidance documents as a legal basis for issuing penalties in circumstances like workplace violence where no specific standard applies, potentially affecting use of the OSH Act general duty clause.