Daily News

Employer representatives and worker-safety advocates are targeting a host of upcoming California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) draft safety rules for scrutiny and likely policy battles, including standards for lead exposures, workplace violence, indoor heat, and a permanent infectious disease standard that is expected to include a controversial “exclusion pay” requirement.

OSHA is raising its minimum and maximum penalties for OSH Act violations by 7.7 percent to account for inflation, an even larger hike than the prior year and one the agency is again ordering states to adopt in their own work-safety programs even as it awaits a federal judge’s ruling in litigation over whether that mandate is lawful.

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is underscoring the importance of the “creating employer” doctrine for identifying liability for safety violations at multi-employer worksites, as the panel remanded for new proceedings a case where an administrative law judge (ALJ) rejected an OSHA crane-safety violation under separate test for identifying “controlling” employers at such sites.

Health and work-safety groups that sued over OSHA’s Trump-era rollback of electronic recordkeeping mandates are pressing to resume their suit after the Biden administration moved its target for finalizing a new, stricter rule from March to June, saying the agency’s “pattern of reneging on its agreements” means litigation is the only sure path to resolve their claims.

OSHA’s director of standards and guidance is vowing that the agency will move quickly on its long-awaited nationwide heat danger standard, telling a key advisory committee that it is actively developing new guidance and expects to initiate a small-business consultation within months.

Healthcare employers and trade groups representing an array of other, overlapping sectors are continuing to push OSHA to either drop its plan for a final COVID-19 safety standard in healthcare workplaces, or tie it strictly to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, as the White House advances its review of the rule.

Groups that advocate for domestic workers are intensifying pressure on California lawmakers and regulators to pursue first-time workplace safety standards for the sector, following a Jan. 9 webinar where they expressed frustration with a California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) official who overstated current protections for domestic work.

OSHA has posted online a new batch of regulatory interpretation letters for the first time in more than six months, offering answers to employers’ questions for clarification on exit signage requirements, fall protections for certain cranes, and compliance with lockout/tagout standards during pipeline repair.

EPA will collect $600,000 in penalties for alleged Risk Management Program (RMP) violations by a Denver chemical distribution site under a newly announced settlement that also includes a $200,000 supplemental environmental project (SEP) -- just as the agency is readying a new RMP rule that would tighten many of its requirements.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has set oral argument for early March in a construction firm’s clash with OSHA over the agency’s safety standards for crane assembly and disassembly, teeing up arguments on whether those requirements “clearly” apply to preparatory work as the agency says, and how to read any ambiguity in the rule.

For the second time in less than three months, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is pressing EPA to prioritize hydrofluoric acid (HF) for TSCA evaluation, and to also boost inspections of facilities that work with the chemical, following the board’s investigation of a Wisconsin refinery explosion.

As an influential OSHA advisory panel prepares to meet Jan. 10, the agency is seeking nominees for six seats on its National Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH), opening a fresh round of nominations even as the agency has yet to announce selections for another four terms set to expire in less than two weeks.

Employer attorneys are preparing for California’s first steps to implement several new worker-safety laws slated to take effect in 2023, including measures extending COVID-19 sick-leave requirements and new mandates for protecting employees during certain “emergency” events.

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is pressing OSHA to step up enforcement on traumatic injuries after the Labor Department’s (DOL) annual report on worker deaths from sudden trauma for 2021 found an 8.9 percent increase from the prior year -- a rise the group says should be “unacceptably high” for the agency.

Labor groups are urging the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to tighten OSHA’s final safety standard for COVID-19 exposure in healthcare workplaces beyond the emergency requirements the agency imposed in 2021, focusing in particular on calls to exceed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for the pandemic.

Officials with National Nurses United (NNU) used a Dec. 19 meeting with OMB to push for the permanent standard to be released as soon as possible, according to Jane Thomason, the union’s lead industrial hygienist.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has released its report on a 2019 accident at a butadiene production facility in Texas, recommending that both the operator and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) strengthen their policies for the chemical to prevent similar incidents, just as EPA is evaluating its risks under TSCA.

An industry group is urging the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to block EPA from placing strict TSCA limits on methylene chloride use in order to protect workers from exposure, arguing that a tough rule lacks scientific support and risks cutting off domestic manufacturing of several key products.

A new report from the labor-environmental group BlueGreen Alliance (BGA) finds safety data sheets (SDS) OSHA requires to list chemicals’ toxic or hazardous properties are often erroneous, including several EPA has targeted for regulation -- which the group says undercut industry arguments that OSHA rules will protect workers from exposure.

A top official with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce used a recent White House meeting to reiterate claims that OSHA is violating the law by crafting a final COVID-19 safety standard for healthcare facilities based on its expired emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the sector, in a preview of possible legal challenges facing the imminent rule.

The just-released fiscal year 2023 omnibus spending bill includes a $20 million funding increase for OSHA, with nearly all of its programs in line to receive at least a small boost, though the overall increase is far below the nearly $90 million the Biden administration sought.