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.
September 16, 2026
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Senate appropriations committee has set aside funds for NIOSH to conduct a study of line speed safety for poultry workers, a move which follows a Department of Agriculture study regarding safety of inspectors. Union officials are indicating that the information, including repetitive stress data, is necessary to determine whether OSHA action is needed.
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OSHA has given state plans 30 days to fix a slew of problems uncovered in a nearly year-long agency review of state occupational safety and health programs, signaling that at least one state, Hawaii, risks federal OSHA asserting control of its program, the agency indicated Tuesday. The problems uncovered by OSHA include “concerns about identification of hazards, proper classification of violations, proposed penalty levels and failure to follow up on violations to ensure that workplace safety and health problems are corrected,” OSHA chief David Michaels said.
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State programs are pushing back against previously announced plans by federal OSHA to require states to adopt federal OSHA policies on penalty structures and emphasis programs, recently sending letters to OSHA chief David Michaels outlining concerns with the planned action.
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As OSHA continues to face calls to draft a standard to stop power plants from using flammable gases to conduct “gas blows,” a pair of developments – an executive order by Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) banning the practice and a statement from a member of the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) on the issue – stepped up pressure on worker safety officials to address the issue. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a proponent of regulatory moves on the issue, praised Rell's order but decried the lack of federal OSHA guidelines and procedures for handling natural gas.
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OSHA and NIOSH have joined forces to investigate and characterize possible workplace risks associated with nanotechnology, with a goal to recommend workplace safety measures, possibly incorporating control banding, that could be instituted by industry. NIOSH chief John Howard told Inside OSHA Online that his agency has tried to interest OSHA in the nanomaterial issue for quite a number of years, calling the technology an emerging risk but one that is not ready for the regulatory agenda. “I think it's very positive,” he said, referring to the agreement.
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Worker advocates are renewing calls for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to move the whistleblower protection program out of OSHA and establish it as an independent agency within the Labor Department, reacting to a new report by Congress' investigative arm that strongly criticizes OSHA's handling of the program. One of the groups may also take OSHA to court over its denial of a Freedom of Information Act request for internal OSHA survey results about the whistleblower program, a source with the group said.
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OSHA signaled it has health and safety concerns relating to long work hours across many industry sectors and stopped short of committing to draft new regulations sought by worker advocacy groups limiting the hours resident physicians can work in a single week and in a single shift. As OSHA faces regulatory pressure, the professional medical organization that oversees all resident physician training is touting its newly updated voluntary standards addressing work hours.
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The Government Accountability Office is charging that OSHA has yet to adequately respond to its criticism last year on the agency's embattled whistleblower program and has failed to make changes to the program a priority. GAO found that OSHA’s national office continues to have specific management problems, and asserted that there are still issues with consistency and accountability in whistleblower activities across regional offices, as was outlined in the 2009 report.
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OSHA is considering a multi-pronged approach for tackling chemical exposures in the workplace, including using a planned injury and illness prevention program rule as a vehicle to ensure compliance with safety measures, agency chief David Michaels told stakeholders this week.
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Worker safety advocates are engaged in a grassroots effort to shore up support among lawmakers to include sweeping OSHA reforms as part of any mine safety bill that moves through Congress this year, sources say. A congressional Democratic source acknowledged that lawmakers are divided on the issue as including the OSHA language complicates efforts to get mine legislation passed.
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Business interests and organized labor are at odds over a proposed OSHA regulation that would end broad exemptions from agency inspections for worksites participating in on-site consultation programs, with the proposed rule making it easier for the agency to conduct “critical inspections” as it deems necessary. Industry sources suggest the changes could gut the voluntary program, but union sources say the proposal simply clarifies OSHA's inspection authority on major issues of public interest, such as diacetyl and combustible dust.
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The Small Business Administration is urging OSHA to take seriously industry's concerns that the agency's proposed fall protection standard goes too far by including a “general duty” type enforcement clause, and improperly opens the door to using the standard to address combustible dust. But union officials want OSHA to go a step further and explicitly link the standard to regulation of combustible dust.
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A recent decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) in the Summit Contractors case bolsters OSHA's longstanding policy of holding an employer responsible for the activities of its subcontractors, but industry sources say there are still many issues yet to be litigated, particularly how OSHA defines “controlling employers” and “creating employers.” The review commission followed recent court precedent and in the process reversed its earlier position on the issue.
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