Daily News

California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has approved final COVID-19 worker-safety rules, despite ongoing unease among key stakeholder groups -- including labor representatives unhappy that an “exclusion pay” requirement was left out of the standard, and employers who fear that mandate will return in a future rule for general infectious diseases.

OSHA is citing Amazon for 14 alleged recordkeeping and reporting violations as part of its high-profile investigation into reported safety issues at the retail giant’s warehouses -- the first public action it has taken since the Justice Department (DOJ) became involved in the inquiry, which the agency says is “ongoing” and could produce more citations.

OSHA’s advisors are floating several areas where they could urge the agency to take a broad approach in its upcoming heat danger standard, such as by tailoring protections for a wide range of job conditions and expanding the list of health risks the rule could address.

During a Dec. 13 meeting of the National Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NACOSH) heat workgroup, members summarized tentative conclusions from recent internal discussions, and previewed suggestions for the standard that they could present to a full NACOSH meeting slated for Jan. 10.

The Senate has confirmed former EPA chemicals chief Steve Owens as chairman of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and former California utility regulator Catherine J.K. Sandoval as the panel’s third member, moving it a step closer to full strength after years of shorthanded operations.

Owens and Sandoval were both confirmed by voice vote late on Dec. 13, just hours after the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) approved sending their nominations to the floor -- also by voice vote.

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is saying an administrative law judge (ALJ) was wrong to assume OSHA’s preferred method to abate workplace violence at a Colorado healthcare facility was “feasible” without reports from the company, reinforcing what the panel says is a high bar to make an adverse inference based on lack of financial data.

The White House is preparing to hold the first in a series of stakeholder meetings on EPA’s precedent-setting draft TSCA risk management rule for the solvent methylene chloride, with labor unions and a key industry group in line to make their cases for a strict or lenient approach before the agency releases a formal proposal next year.

Democrats are poised to release their own proposed “omnibus” fiscal year 2023 spending bill for OSHA and other agencies on Dec. 12, signaling a possible impasse in negotiations with Republicans on a deal amid a GOP push to cut non-defense spending following Democrats’ passage of a massive party-line spending bill earlier this year.

OSHA has sent its long-term COVID-19 safety standard for healthcare facilities to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, moving the rule to the final stage of its administrative process after months of delay -- though the timeline for final action remains unclear at best.

OSHA is touting its latest in a series of enforcement actions against Dollar General over allegations of widespread unsafe conditions, such as faulty emergency exits at the retailer’s stores, even after the agency agreed to drop a court action designed to enforce what it said was an “informal settlement” stemming from an earlier round of citations.

California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is easing requirements in its final proposed update to first-aid kit requirements for general industry and construction firms pertaining to the type of container required, but is maintaining a mandate to check the kits weekly despite employer representatives’ continued opposition.

EPA has submitted its TSCA proposal to regulate use of the solvent methylene chloride to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), setting the stage for what a top toxics official said will be a model for future chemical rules designed to protected both workers and the general public from chemical exposures.

A California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) advisory committee and agency staff are poised to finalize joint recommendations to state lawmakers for policies to protect the health and safety of privately employed household domestic service workers, as well as voluntary guidelines for the sector targeting both workers and employers.

State lawmakers mandated the reports under a 2021 law known as SB 321, with a deadline of Jan. 1, 2023. Once submitted, either or both could become the basis of proposals for mandatory Cal/OSHA worker-safety standards for the sector.

OSHA is opening new rounds of nominations to its advisory committees for worker safety in the maritime and construction sectors ahead of term expirations for the full rosters of both panels this spring, as the agency is also preparing to fill four spots on its influential National Advisory Committee on Safety and Health (NACOSH).

OSHA is urging a federal appeals court to reject a Texas construction firm’s argument that its safety standards for crane assembly and disassembly do not cover preparatory steps, arguing that the rule is “unambiguous” and that even if its scope is unclear judges should defer to the agency’s reasonable interpretation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit is weighing competing briefs from OSHA and two subsidiaries of the healthcare giant UHS in an appeal testing when the agency can treat legally distinct companies as a “single employer,” as each side claims the other is trying to overturn foundational precedent on that question.

California lawmakers signaled at a recent hearing that they are open to new legislation that would speed up worker-safety rulemakings and bolster enforcement at the state’s OSHA (Cal/OSHA), after labor representatives complained that several critical safety standards are taking years to complete and enforcement is lacking at best in many key sectors.

The United Steelworkers (USW) is urging OSHA to quickly propose and enact a sweeping overhaul of its process safety management (PSM) standard, arguing that the current “activity-based” model is inadequate and that the agency instead should require employers to show they have eliminated process safety dangers “to the greatest extent feasible.”

Republicans on the House labor panel offered a preview of their potential agenda as the incoming majority during a recent workforce protection hearing, as top GOP members accused Democrats of using safety concerns as an excuse to expand union membership while decrying the Biden OSHA’s focus on regulation over compliance assistance as “authoritarian.”

California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board members are grudgingly accepting that the agency will not restore “exclusion pay” requirements in its long-term COVID-19 worker-safety standard, after staffers told them inserting the benefit would delay the rule by at least seven months -- which would leave no coronavirus standard in place as of Jan. 1.

Leaders of the Chemical Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC), an industry coalition that works with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are urging Congress to swiftly reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program before it expires in 2023, emphasizing what they say has been valuable public-private collaboration and successful work preventing cybersecurity and other chemical incidents.