Daily News

Organized labor will closely examine worker training provisions OSHA wrote into its proposed standards to reduce occupational exposure to crystalline silica, a source knowledgeable about the issue says. Union officials are concerned that the rule could mandate only one-time training for employees when the risks of silica exposure demand ongoing training programs.

OSHA has floated several “regulatory alternatives” to its proposed new standards to reduce worker exposures to crystalline silica, offering industry and other stakeholders a chance to justify other options in reaching the goals of the rulemaking. But the agency insists it will not budge on a key principle, also backed by unions: the primacy of engineering controls and work practices to reduce exposure as opposed to fitting workers with respirators.

Flight attendants and other crew members, except flight-deck crew, will get long-sought OSHA protections under a new policy issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday (Aug. 22). The new policy arises from provisions in last year's FAA modernization bill that dealt with occupational safety and health.

Some safety and health stakeholders argue that cost-benefit data included in OSHA's newly proposed crystalline silica standard show undue pressure on the agency to conduct economic analyses of new regulations that ultimately do not factor into whether it moves forward with key rulemaking priorities.

Industry sources say OSHA's newly released proposed rule to reduce worker exposures to crystalline silica, given its breadth across business sectors and the reach of the standard, could represent the biggest OSHA proposed regulation in terms of impact on business since the agency's abortive effort to regulate ergonomic hazards in the late 1990s. One attorney says the comment period will be a chance to point out why the administration “impounded” the rule with a drawn-out review process.

OSHA released its long-awaited proposed rule tackling crystalline silica exposures on Friday (Aug. 23), rolling out a comprehensive regulation that if eventually adopted would cut the permissible exposure limit to 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline silica per cubic meter and take broad measures to limit worker exposures across industries.

The proposed rule is split between two separate standards -- one for general industry and maritime, and the other for construction.

Newly released government data show work-related deaths last year dropping slightly by percentage relative to 2011, but the construction sector and specific high-risk industries suffered setbacks, with fatalities on the rise. OSHA officials say that while the overall figures are encouraging, a 5 percent spike in building industry deaths found in the report is cause for alarm.

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is exploring the possibility of creating an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process to resolve OSHA cases that rise to the full commission level on appeal, in an effort to deal with a backlog of cases.

OSHRC will publish a notice Thursday (Aug. 22) in the Federal Register seeking public input on the concept, in which the independent agency would effectively create at the review level a mediation process similar to the one sometimes used to clear up cases initially before administrative law judges (ALJ).

Federal OSHA has issued an in-depth report on the performance of California's state plan that reflects persisting differences between how the federal government and states track safety and health program effectiveness. The report -- part of an annual evaluation of all 27 state OSHA programs -- highlights issues that continue to figure into how OSHA determines whether plans meet federal requirements. A California source tells Inside OSHA Online extensive disparities remain in how that state and OSHA gauge effectiveness.

Union officials are praising OSHA for what they consider a rigorous approach to concerns raised by organized labor about alleged hazards at a large steel product manufacturer, expressing “gratitude” that the agency aggressively responded to a host of formal complaints. The manufacturer says it is closely examining OSHA's allegations to determine a course of action in the case, in which OSHA proposed fines of more than $1.1 million and emphasized its intent to crack down on recalcitrant employers.

OSHA chief David Michaels says the agency is actively working to confront a growing problem -- how to uniformly enforce health and safety standards given the increased “atomization” of the work force largely caused by the use of contract and temporary labor. The Labor Department's focus on the issue dovetails with a recent push by OSHA to target and reduce hazards faced by temporary workers.

OSHA has launched an intensive effort to cut down on excessive noise exposures in the manufacturing sector in New England, in what one industry official speculates could serve as a “test case” to roll out more aggressive noise control enforcement across the country. The agency created a new Local Emphasis Program (LEP) to be applied region-wide in several Northeast states, including outreach to employers and targeted enforcement.

A multinational company's effort to produce its own safety standards in dealing with “hot work” -- any operations that can involve flammable materials -- could offer a potential model for other employers to both meet and exceed OSHA standards on the issue. A company official tells Inside OSHA Online the company-crafted standard details procedures in several areas not specifically addressed under federal OSHA regulations.

A recent legal battle over a raft of OSHA citations under the process safety management (PSM) standard underscores a dilemma faced by the agency in how to craft risk-based regulations, versus the prescriptive standards that are common for OSHA rulemaking throughout its history, safety and health experts say.

OSHA's policy on using an employer's self-audits during inspections to identify potential workplace hazards -- and the results of those procedures then being used as the basis for citations -- has come up as an issue in a contested case over alleged process safety management (PSM) violations at a BP facility in Ohio.

An administrative law judge (ALJ) has thrown out most of OSHA's citations and fines against BP Products North America and an Ohio subsidiary over a slew of allegations that the company violated process safety management (PSM) standards -- a decision that poses serious issues for the agency's enforcement of the rule and potentially has wider implications for the industry's reliance on generally accepted safety practices.

OSHA has formally withdrawn a proposed rule to change the provisions of consultation agreements to allow inspectors to enter work sites that are participating in the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) when critical hazards are identified. The proposal also would have reduced the deletion period from the list of programmed inspections for SHARP participants.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has inked a corporate-wide settlement agreement with OSHA to abate hazards involved in trash compactors, cleaning chemicals and hazard communication throughout the company, clearing up citations that originally arose from inspections at a Rochester, NY, operation. OSHA touted the agreement as sending a message to employers that OSHA is serious about hazard abatement, but worker advocates still complain that the sprawling retail empire has a long way to go in securing worker safety and health rights.

A recently formed Senate Judiciary subcommittee is probing the reasons behind what critics call an unnecessarily protracted White House review of new agency regulations, focusing on OSHA's planned rule tackling crystalline silica hazards, which is still under “extended” review at the Office of Management and Budget.

A contentious OSHA plan to reshape the rules under which compliance officers can enter work sites that fall under the voluntary Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) has quietly gone by the wayside, with the agency saying in a regulatory document that it is withdrawing the proposed rule “in light of” stakeholder concerns.