Daily News

Massachusetts, shortly after enacting a law extending OSHA protections to the commonwealth's executive branch workers, has advanced a bill creating full coverage for the public sector -- a move to close what safety and health activists consider a major gap in worker protections, and which ties into a national push for covering public employees.

Congressional Republicans are pressing Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to release documents tied to the Solicitor's Office drafting of contentious new guidelines for OSHA to decide if businesses should be treated as joint employers -- effectively helping expand OSHA's enforcement reach into franchises and similar business models -- saying the policy leads OSHA astray from its core safety and health mission.

OSHA has decided to give employers in residential construction three more months to fully comply with the agency's confined spaces in construction standard as long as they are demonstrating “good faith” efforts to follow the new regulations, with OSHA setting specific guidelines for that determination.

A Senate committee has delayed a vote on legislation that would create a high-profile independent commission to review longstanding federal rules and recommend ways Congress could change or kill regulations, citing worries that a cluster of GOP amendments could sink chances for a bipartisan deal.

Corporate officers could be held criminally at fault if they fail to disclose serious product defects that put workers or consumers in danger, under legislation that a Senate Democrat has re-introduced, with the bill drawing praise from safety activists who contend the OSH Act and OSHA are too weak to effectively bring alleged willful violators to prosecution.

Development of a global workplace safety and health management standard, which took a major step forward at a meeting of technical experts last month in Geneva, could help raise the profile of OSHA compliance as employers strive to meet international consensus standards on worker health, a U.S. participant says.

Agricultural industry officials are weighing a legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's revised farm worker protection standards (WPS), with possible arguments including that the agency failed to adequately assess the rule's costs and benefits, though an industry source says groups are also seeking agency advice for implementing the new requirements.

A powerful coalition of agribusiness trade groups urged House lawmakers Wednesday (Oct. 7) to pressure OSHA into reversing course on a controversial interpretation of the agency's rule to prevent chemical process disasters, just as congressional Republicans took OSHA to task for a field guidance they say vastly expands the rule's reach without any formal avenue for public feedback.

OSHA took a key step forward in its regulatory plan to require larger companies to electronically report workplace injuries and illnesses, with the data later being posted to an online database, by sending the rule for White House review -- a clear signal OSHA fully intends to issue the rule while time remains in the Obama administration.

OSHA should continue strengthening the heavily burdened whistleblower protection program, partly by better monitoring effectiveness and setting performance metrics, the Labor Department's internal watchdog says -- conclusions backed by OSHA, even as the agency finds fault with some of the findings in a new report.

Employer representatives are urging White House budget officials to review OSHA policy regarding enforcement deadlines for labeling chemicals under the hazard communication (hazcom) standard, as they say the rule does not give companies enough time to meet the regulations' complex data collection requirements.

OSHA's new inspection weighting system, which assigns numerical values to different types of inspections in an effort to better allocate tight enforcement resources, partly aims to help field staff devote time to probes in areas lacking specific OSHA standards, such as ergonomics, according to an internal agency memo obtained by Inside OSHA Online.

Agriculture workers are getting new protections from toxic chemicals to align with other industries, as the Environmental Protection Agency finalized changes to its pesticide worker protection standards (WPS), including backing advocates' calls to bar anyone under age 18 from handling pesticides -- despite objections from industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Labor Department lauded EPA's revisions, however, saying the environmental agency is extending vital new protections.

OSHA charges that an Illinois recycling company overexposed workers to lead and cadmium and violated several of the agency's standards, with proposed fines totaling $114,800 -- action that comes as worker advocacy groups call attention to safety and health issues in the recycling industry in general, with chemical exposures from breaking down electronics a central concern.

Federal chemical safety experts called on DuPont to put what they consider safer process and building designs in place at the chemical giant's insecticide plant in La Porte, TX, while continuing to probe last fall's deadly release of methyl mercaptan on the site, but as yet have not released any potential OSHA recommendations.

OSHA and other regulators face pressure from safety advocates to urge inherently safer design (ISD) at chemical facilities with the goal of proactively addressing hazards that could lead to chemical disasters.

Preliminary data show fall protection leads the top 10 categories of most-cited alleged violations of the OSH Act in fiscal 2015, with hazard communication, scaffolding, respiratory protection and lock-out/tagout rounding out the top five areas where field investigators found non-compliance, the National Safety Council said.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, putting regulatory reform at the front and center of his GOP presidential campaign, wants to pursue policies that could raise obstacles to new OSHA standards by freezing progress on any new rules under a new White House until political appointees are in place, and cutting off avenues like “sue and settle,” in which parties can force an agency's hand in issuing new regulations.

Groups pressing for stricter chemical plant safety regulations are criticizing a recent settlement resolving the Environmental Protection Agency's probe into a fatal 2008 explosion at Bayer CropScience, arguing the agreement's provisions are inadequate to prevent future disasters, even if they were included in a revised safety rule. The settlement comes as OSHA works with EPA and other agencies to explore changes to chemical safety policy.

GOP senators on the government oversight panel led by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) are demanding OSHA refrain from using new guidance documents to enforce broader positions regarding several aspects of chemical safety regulation, saying the agency did not follow required administrative procedure in issuing the guidance, according to a letter sent Tuesday.

A bill with potentially long-term impact on OSHA rules that have stood for a decade or more has a real shot at consideration, congressional observers say, as regulatory reform efforts intensify on Capitol Hill and worker safety advocates voice concerns that at least some measures to restrain the rulemaking agencies will get floor votes.

The measure creates a legislative commission to recommend possible changes to regulations, a single package of which could be voted up-or-down. Sources say the bill is headed to markup next month.