Daily News

A second federal appeals court has struck down the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) contentious rule to require employers to post an official board notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act -- a rule fiercely opposed by Republicans who depicted it as a power grab by the labor mediation body. Several GOP House members, who signed onto court documents arguing against the rule, said the broad notice would interfere with other, already required notice postings including OSHA rights.

An interim report by NIOSH researchers on the findings of a Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) of a poultry processing plant in South Carolina concludes that “most employees reported musculoskeletal symptoms,” usually involving the hand or wrist, in data collected from production employees. Sources say the report, while not yet finalized by NIOSH, could provide data to underscore a need for ergonomic control measures in such work environments, though they caution that the study's results are intrinsically limited to the plant that was evaluated.

The Louisiana chemical plant where a catastrophic blast on Thursday (June 13) took at least two lives and sent scores to the hospital had not been through an OSHA inspection, according to an agency official. While causes of the fire and explosion have not been determined or released publicly, the event reinforced already rampant concerns in the safety and health community about the effectiveness of OSHA oversight of chemical facilities in light of recent incidents.

OSHA's recent rollout of a Local Emphasis Program (LEP) by its Idaho office to better enforce regulations on the safe use of powered industrial trucks could point to a larger trend of the agency enforcing such rules around the country, an industry attorney tells Inside OSHA Online.

The source points out that two years ago, the agency implemented regional enforcement programs to beef up enforcement of powered industrial truck regulations in the Southeast, announcing new programs tackling the issue in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi.

A Democratic-sponsored amendment to require that military-branded garments made in Bangladesh and sold at base retail stores owned by the Defense Department comply with an enforceable fire and building safety accord passed the House as part of a Defense authorization bill Friday (June 14).

Sponsors say the amendment, filed by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and George Miller (D-CA) and approved by voice vote, backs an agreement that will improve conditions in Bangladesh ready-made garment factories.

OSHA and the Labor Department Solicitor's Office are struggling with legal and policy issues surrounding the agency's recently launched effort to tackle hazards faced by temporary workers -- especially how to deal with questions about whether a temp agency or host employer has primary responsibility for safety and health training and oversight, top agency officials say.

OSHA plans to name Dorothy Dougherty, currently chief of the agency's standards division, as its new deputy assistant secretary to replace Richard Fairfax, who retired this spring, sources tell Inside OSHA Online. Also, sources both inside and outside the agency say Deborah Berkowitz, OSHA chief of staff, is transitioning to a new special advisory role. Neither change has been formally announced.

OSHA has rolled out a new policy directing how agency regions will handle inspections triggered by fatalities and willful violations found at Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) sites, mandating that regional administrators suspend an employer's VPP status pending investigation of the case.

NIOSH has proposed a new set of 28 drugs that it wants to add to its list of potentially dangerous antineoplastic and other hazardous drugs used in health care settings, teeing up a public discussion about controls to ensure health workers are not harmed from exposures and which drugs should be included. A policy expert on hazardous drugs tells Inside OSHA Online there were a few surprises on the list -- particularly two antifungal drugs and a widely used anticoagulant.

Worker advocates say a string of first responder deaths during massive explosion and fire incidents in recent weeks underscores a need for extending more stringent OSHA protections to emergency workers nationally, especially those public sector employees who receive no jurisdictional coverage by federal OSHA or a state plan. A Democratic House member engaged in safety and health issues tells Inside OSHA Online there are also serious gaps in providing protection for volunteer first responders.

Budget sequestration, the automatic, across-the-board cuts now rippling across the government, are having a serious impact on OSHA's efforts to protect worker safety and health, Acting Labor Secretary Seth Harris warned lawmakers Thursday (June 6). One worker safety advocate following the issue says the agency has been forced to cut corners in areas such as training and compliance assistance, with the long-term impact as yet unclear.

The Labor Department has reached an out-of-court deal with ex-OSHA official Robert Whitmore to settle his claims against the agency for $820,000, bringing the legal fight to a close in a six-year feud between OSHA and the former official, who has long sharply criticized injury and illness recordkeeping practices and portrayed himself as an agency whistleblower wrongfully fired for speaking out.

The White House has come under attack from a limited-government advocacy group that says President Obama's failure to name a new Labor Department Inspector General (IG) -- along with several other internal watchdog posts across the federal government -- undermines his claims of transparency. The Labor Office of Inspector General oversees audits of OSHA programs among its many functions, but the OIG has not had a permanent director in five years, leaving oversight of internal reviews to deputy inspectors general.

OSHA's standards division is pushing ahead with efforts to propose a new rule designed to cut down on worker exposures to beryllium as soon as this year, officials say, tackling an issue that OSHA has tried to address for decades and which has been the subject of advocate petitions to OSHA. One official says the agency is carefully weighing a joint industry/union proposal sent to the agency last year that would cut the beryllium permissible exposure limit (PEL) by 90 percent.

OSHA has issued a final rule broadening an exemption for digger derricks used in the electric utility business from requirements in the agency's 2010 cranes and derricks standard. The move clears up a longstanding issue that industry had with the expansive new rule, though an industry source closely watching the rollout of the regulations says further refinements to the standard are still to come.

A group of House Republicans on Friday (May 24) demanded that the White House explain why the Obama administration has so far failed to produce a spring regulatory agenda for federal agencies that was due in April, saying the delays are causing substantial regulatory uncertainty for employers.

Sources say OSHA stakeholders widely anticipate the development of a new rulemaking agenda to find out where the agency stands on key planned regulations -- especially a tighter silica standard, which has been held up at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for over two years.

Construction safety advocates are preparing to call on the Obama administration to draft an executive order that would require agency procurement officers to complete a worker health and safety checklist for bidders on federal building contracts. But the draft checklist, now in the early planning stages, is already generating industry concerns about the role it could play in the overall bidding process and how performances are scored.

NIOSH chief John Howard says the agency is working aggressively to develop science to bolster OSHA rulemaking -- especially in areas such as recommended exposure limits (RELs) for hazardous chemicals found in the workplace, which support development of OSHA's mandated permissible exposure limits (PELs) -- even as the research agency faces resource constraints and potentially looming budget cuts.

Construction experts advising OSHA on safety issues hope to persuade the agency to reverse plans to eliminate a fall protection rule requiring written training certification. OSHA says the fall protection standard's certification mandate imposes a significant paperwork burden on employers and there is no “persuasive evidence” the regulation improves overall training effectiveness.

A key OSHA advisory group on construction safety and health issues is urging the agency to scrap its plans to extend by three years a requirement in the cranes and derricks standard for crane operator certification under the final rule, and to move as quickly as possible on any amendments to the standard.