Daily News

A Senate Democratic counsel who has worked extensively on OSHA and other employment issues for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), outgoing chair of the labor committee, has been tapped by President Obama as the next member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), as Obama withdrew a contentious nominee who had earlier been named using “recess appointment” powers that led to a Supreme Court battle.

Lauren McFerran has been picked as nominee to the NLRB and faces Senate confirmation. She currently serves as chief labor counsel and deputy staff director of the Senate Labor Committee.

OSHA considers the core principle that health care employees should be made “whole” compensation-wise if they are temporarily removed on a medical basis from their work settings an essential aspect of the agency's planned rule to help prevent the spread of airborne- or droplet-based infectious diseases, officials said Wednesday (Nov. 12) after small employers raised concerns about the provision. OSHA suggests it may even require employers to cover workers' health insurance expenses that exceed medical benefits.

OSHA has again decided to delay full implementation of its new electrical power generation and distribution safety rule by issuing a new “temporary citation” policy that pushes back enforcement of the specific regulatory mandates until the end of this year, though it remains possible for compliance officers to allege violations of existing requirements.

OSHA's decision to wield the OSH Act general duty clause against a poultry processing facility in Alabama -- an action precipitated by a complaint from the Southern Poverty Law Center -- reflects, according to observers, both an eagerness on OSHA's part to enforce against alleged ergonomic hazards and agency concern that new government rules allowing accelerated chicken processing lines could lead to severe occupational injury risks.

Some OSHA stakeholders, especially in the worker advocacy community, are expressing deep concern that the Obama administration failed to take into account pressing needs for resources at the safety and health agency to tackle Ebola when President Obama recently sent to Congress a massive emergency funding request to confront the crisis.

The White House on Nov. 5 unveiled a multi-billion dollar fiscal 2015 emergency appropriations request to support Ebola efforts -- including adding to the national stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) to stop the spread of Ebola among health workers -- in a far-reaching spending plan that Congress will take up this week.

OSHA is preparing to issue a “matrix” regarding proper use and supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to shield workers from potential exposure to the Ebola virus in the event suspected or known cases of the highly infectious disease continue to appear in the United States, a key OSHA official working on Ebola concerns said Thursday.

The Republican takeover of the Senate likely foretells huge new difficulties for OSHA's regulatory and enforcement agenda, with one prediction especially dire for the agency: that the GOP will almost certainly try to obstruct, or even dash altogether, longtime efforts to issue a rule clamping down on crystalline silica exposures, Washington sources say.

The Labor Department's internal watchdog is looking into OSHA enforcement practices at Job Corps centers owned by DOL, according to the Office of Inspector General's latest audit work plan which outlines investigative priorities for fiscal 2015.

NIOSH chief John Howard this week outlined several major research priorities that he views as central to government – and industry-wide – efforts to protect workers from Ebola and other diseases, saying the need to match worker exposure levels to appropriate use of personal protective equipment, as well as to test methods for determining the  amount of protection from a given type of PPE, are key research issues for infection control experts.

OSHA is signaling that it may soon move forward on a proposed rule to “clarify” OSHA recordkeeping requirements to indicate that the six-month statute of limitations for enforcement restarts every day that an employer fails to correct an inaccurate or incomplete injury and illness log. The rule would be an attempt to overcome a controversial ruling that the enforcement period begins when an inaccuracy becomes a violation and cannot be cited after six months.

OSHA in attempting to issue an infectious disease rule that would apply in health care settings is asking small business representatives to consider a requirement that hospitals retain in-house occupational health experts or hire dedicated consultants to combat the potential spread of infectious agents among workers.

Business groups have decided their day in court is over after D.C. Circuit appellate judges threw out the groups' challenge of OSHA's inclusion of combustible grain dust in its 2012 update to the hazard communication rule, accepting that affected employers will have to integrate the requirement in their operations despite the trade groups' rigorous assertion that OSHA failed to follow regulatory procedure in defining combustible dust, a knowledgeable legal source tells Inside OSHA Online.

OSHA in a tentative regulatory step toward fighting infectious disease transmission in health care settings floats the idea of written, highly specific control plans, which sources say is outside the traditional OSHA approach and akin to injury and illness prevention programs. The concept of such programs has been a sore subject among industry advocates for many years but one that the agency argues is necessary as part of comprehensive occupational controls.

OSHA has drafted the framework for an envisioned rule to help stop the spread of infectious diseases in health care work settings, putting a conceptual blueprint of the rule before small business advocates in a required next step of trying to advance the rule, which would in OSHA's eyes include a written infection control plan and qualified personnel within hospitals to oversee disease control efforts on behalf of workers. The move to push the rule forward comes amid rampant concern in the health care sector about the safety of workers potentially exposed to Ebola.

OSHA provided direction on Thursday (Oct. 23) for field officers to carry out the agency's cranes and derricks final rule issued in 2010, saying the guidelines explain to compliance officers how to perform inspections in instances where the rule covers power-operated equipment. The new document provides an abbreviated inspection checklist for officers to follow but notes that in fatality or complaint- or referral-based cases officers may expand investigations at their discretion.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is weighing competing comments on improving its facility security program, with industry groups citing an "inherent conflict" with Environmental Protection Agency information-sharing requirements and urging changes to DHS' inspection protocols, while labor and community groups are calling for greater coordination with other federal programs, including OSHA inspections.

The Environmental Protection Agency is adding 23 new chemicals to the list of substances it plans to assess using existing Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) authority, highlighting the agency's ongoing plan to exert its powers under the decades-old law given fading prospects for Congress to agree on a bill to overhaul TSCA and update EPA's chemical review authority.

OSHA chief David Michaels is asking workplace health experts to advise the agency on several conceptual options to address what the agency believes are outdated permissible exposure limits (PELs): eliminating Z-tables in favor of control banding; using the OSH Act general duty clause in cases where employers may know exposure levels are too high; requiring levels consistent with manufacturers' advice; and requiring employers to evaluate exposure scenarios under the European chemical hazard regulatory regime.

OSHA's court victory Friday in a closely watched challenge of the agency's stance that combustible grain dust can be categorized and regulated for labeling purposes as a “hazardous chemical” under the worker right-to-know standard adds legal weight to OSHA's push to regulate the hazard, with Washington sources saying the decision is likely to have far-reaching impact across industries, not just grain production.