Cal/OSHA chief Len Welsh told Inside OSHA Online that just-issued updates to the state's heat safety regulations should be considered in the big picture of getting eventual OSHA approval of the state plan, noting that no federal standard exists for comparison that specifically addresses heat safety.
September 16, 2026
Business interests hope the incoming Republican House majority attacks what industry views as the Obama OSHA's practice of “regulation by shaming” as well as take on a host of agency priorities, especially efforts to issue an injury and illness prevention program rule and return the musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) column to injury reporting requirements, which industry sees as a back-door way for OSHA to tackle ergonomics enforcement.
Date:
A government-sponsored panel is calling on OSHA to reassess the eight-hour chemical standard used as the metric for permissible exposure limits (PELs) and adopt more aggressive policies to tackle workplace chemical exposures as part of a comprehensive national strategy to reduce the public health effects of toxic substances. The recommendations are from a work group formed as part of a collaborative effort backed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Date:
The Republican takeover of the House and the party's gains in the Senate will likely wipe out a long-sought union-backed push to pass reforms that would expand OSHA's authority, stakeholders said in interviews with Inside OSHA Online. The mid-term elections present OSHA with a far more adversarial political environment than at the outset of the Obama administration, with a more conservative Capitol Hill also likely to stand in the way of contentious rulemaking efforts and restart oversight functions that have stymied the agency in the past, sources say.
Date:
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) on Wednesday outlined an aggressive plan to extend Congress' oversight reach as part of a 17-page roadmap for how he would run the House if tapped House Majority Leader. Cantor's plan calls for a return to a “committee-driven legislature that investigates problems,” and promises floor votes on committee investigations.
Date:
Business representatives are strongly protesting OSHA's proposal to stop offering multi-year blanket inspection exemptions for employers participating in the agency's on-site consultation program, known as the Safety and Health Achievement and Recognition Program (SHARP). Union officials favor the change, but industry officials say the move undermines the program and speculate that OSHA's voluntary compliance efforts will take on new importance if Republicans make significant gains in Tuesday's mid-term elections.
Date:
Future funding for development and support of voluntary threshold limit values (TLVs), exposure limits that have sparked legal controversy due to OSHA's past reliance on them in crafting standards, remains unclear after two key health and safety groups scrapped efforts to form an alliance to support TLVs, sources say.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date: