Daily News

OSHA and FDA are engaged in first-ever discussions on ways to share food facility inspection information, as part of an effort to leverage inspection efforts and prioritize establishments with a history of problematic behavior, according to sources and documents obtained by Inside OSHA Online. This is the first time OSHA has attempted to coordinate with FDA, though the agency has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a similar manner in the past, sources say.

California OSHA Chief Len Welsh, in an exclusive interview with Inside OSHA Online, asserts that federal auditors “didn’t get it” when they criticized his agency for a less-than-national-average number of serious violation citations, arguing that the figure is a sign the California program is working, not that it is deficient.

OSHA would likely collect an estimated $40 million in additional fine revenue in a five-year period under new civil penalties against employers under OSHA-related provisions in the House committee version of the mine safety bill, according to new Congressional Budget Office estimates. The extra revenue out shadows the roughly $19 million in new funding CBO finds OSHA would need to implement whistleblower-related provisions of the bill during the same period. Worker safety advocates are hopeful the estimated net cost-savings to the government will help build support for the OSHA reforms.

OSHA violated its collective bargaining agreement with its internal union by holding discussions on the future of its whistleblower protection program (WPP) without including bargaining unit employees in the talks, the union contended in an e-mail message to agency officials late last week, arguing that the agency's move amounts to an unfair labor practice.

OSHA should remove its whistleblower protection program (WPP) from under the auspices of the Directorate of Enforcement Programs (DEP) and house it in a special directorate or office that reports directly to the OSHA chief, several assistant regional administrators propose in an internal report on ways to improve the program. The report also recommends enhancing the field organizations' oversight of whistleblower cases; creating a budget line item for the whistleblower program; and putting in place a whistleblower training directive, among many suggestions.

Industry officials are concerned about an OSHA proposal to broadly interpret the word “feasible” as it relates to administrative or engineering controls in its noise exposure standards, saying the plan opens the door to broad use of the term in other health and safety enforcement areas. OSHA's move, backed by unions, signals the agency will increasingly require engineering controls instead of reliance on personal protective equipment (PPE) to control worker exposures, sources say.

An internal Labor Department document spells out the reasoning for a controversial proposal to move parts of the whistleblower protection program (WPP) out of OSHA and into the department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), but also presents two fall-back options -- elevating the program to its own agency under Labor or creating a whistleblower directorate with dedicated resources within OSHA. Union sources agree with DOL that the segment covering workplace safety may be best suited for OSHA enforcement but say the program still needs an overhaul.

OSHA's national employee union is complaining that agency management kept it in the dark about internal proposals to break apart the agency's whistleblower protection program (WPP) and move some of its functions to the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), but the union has not taken a position on such a potential move, saying it has not had an opportunity to consult with the bargaining unit employees. The issue is among many expected to crop up Friday at a meeting of a newly revitalized agency Labor-Management Relations Committee.

OSHA's newly rechartered Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH) will tackle mast climbing scaffold safety issues as a key concern at a meeting in December, sources say. The agency recently revived the panel, whose charter had lapsed following its meeting back in April.

Revelations that the Labor Department has held internal discussions about ways to potentially break up OSHA's whistleblower protection program (WPP) and house part of it in the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) have whistleblower advocates and OSHA's internal union upset.

A key public health organization is urging OSHA to place chemicals in classes or families, as opposed to individual substances, as it updates permissible exposure rates. A source close to the issue indicated that OSHA has weighed such an option and that classes could include metalworking fluids such as lubricants, alcohol-based solvents and mineral fibers, as a few examples.

A key public interest group has tapped into NIOSH data to come up with 12 chemicals it says OSHA should prioritize for permissible exposure limit updates, and also urges OSHA in the near term to expand its use of the general duty clause to ensure companies follow the medical literature even in the absence of an updated standard. Public Citizen also echoes calls by other stakeholders for OSHA to consider tackling its outdated PELs through new industrial hygiene standards.

California OSHA is sharply rebutting federal OSHA's critique of the state's occupational safety and health program, challenging OSHA's suggestion that California programs not mirroring federal mandates are not “at least as effective” as federal OSHA standards--the requirement for federal approval of a state plan. Federal OSHA recently asked Cal/OSHA and 24 other state-run programs to correct within 30 days what OSHA pegged as deficiencies in their occupational safety and health programs.

Union officials are questioning why the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has asked an advisory committee to study possible recommendations on how to require flu vaccinations for health care workers, in what organized labor views as a potential next round in the contentious issue over employee mandates.

A key industry stakeholder, ORC-Mercer Networks, told OSHA that the organization does not agree with suggestions that the agency abandon efforts to update individual permissible exposure limits (PELs) in favor of generic approaches, such as proposed rulemaking on injury and illness prevention programs or reliance on some kind of “control banding,” though such efforts could also prove useful.

White House officials extended their review of OSHA's proposal to add back the musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) column to the OSHA Form 300 Log for recordkeeping, as business interests continued to express strong opposition to the proposal and hinted at potential legal action to stop OSHA's move. White House Office of Management and Budget officials met separately in recent months with industry groups opposed to the proposal and unions who support it, according to an OMB meeting log.

After suspending in late July a highly visible national emphasis program targeting recordkeeping, OSHA has quietly reinstated the program with an updated compliance directive that revises the targeting criteria and focuses the inspection effort on the manufacturing sector, along with the addition of some nursing homes. The revised directive was posted on the agency's website late last week, but was not otherwise announced by the agency.

OSHA is requesting that Hawaii's state OSHA program let federal OSHA assert concurrent jurisdiction or face possible withdrawal of the state's health and safety plan -- an action rarely taken by federal OSHA with respect to state plans. The move came as OSHA released audits last week finding major shortcomings across state plans, and in the case of Hawaii, gaps that OSHA determined were significant enough for federal officials to step in.

OSHA is pushing back against claims contained in a Labor Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit report contending that the agency's policy of reducing penalties has been ineffective at improving safety and health at workplaces where the agency has issued citations. OSHA told the OIG that its recently updated penalty policy will adequately limit penalty reductions, and resisted the OIG's call to go a step further and prohibit reductions when an employer is found to have violated a similar standard more than once.

A public interest group has sued the Labor Department over OSHA's denial of two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for materials regarding the agency's whistleblower program as the Labor Office of Inspector General (OIG) on Friday issued a scathing report of OSHA's handling of the program.