Daily News

Leaders on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) appear likely to support President Joe Biden’s latest nominees to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appeared to praise their qualifications and welcomed their promises to focus on hiring at the short-staffed agency.

Employer attorneys are highlighting a recent decision by an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) judge as a rare signal of the agency’s burden to show workers should be considered employees and not contractors under the OSH Act, just as the Labor Department is weighing a new rulemaking to define those categories.

Employers and trade groups are warning OSHA against moving forward with planned reforms to the process safety management (PSM) standard, arguing that they would make the rule less flexible without proof they are needed for safety, and that it must ensure the PSM program remains aligned with EPA’s risk management program (RMP) facility safety rule.

An Ohio firm is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to hold that Congress violated the Constitution when it directed OSHA to set workplace safety standards as “reasonably necessary or appropriate,” arguing that the OSH Act lacks any “limiting principle” on agency discretion, while also downplaying potential impacts of a future ruling in its favor.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is escalating its attacks on the peer review of EPA’s draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) formaldehyde assessment, arguing that “deficiencies” in the review committee’s first public meeting were “inconsistent” with federal law governing advisory panels.

Employer attorneys are touting what they say are California’s extensive worker pay and job protections in defense of Cal/OSHA’s proposal to drop “exclusion pay” requirements from its final COVID-19 safety standard, after labor groups and their allies -- including members of the agency standards board -- have pushed to restore those mandates.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is weighing OSHA’s leeway to amend claims in its enforcement citations during the administrative appeal process, as an Ohio employer seeks to overturn a citation for a 2018 crane accident where it says a mid-litigation revision deprived it of “fair notice” of the agency’s allegations.

Correction Appended

A coalition of 20 Democratic attorneys general (AGs) is calling on EPA to strengthen its proposed risk management program (RMP) rule, saying it should require facilities to adopt inherently safer technologies and other measures that the proposal would make optional, and bolster consideration of natural disasters worsened by climate change.

OSHA is touting a recent district court decision allowing a novel whistleblower enforcement suit over COVID-19 infection risks at a New York healthcare center to proceed despite the employee’s agreement not to sue over the alleged retaliation on her own behalf, calling it a “significant” victory for officials’ authority to prosecute similar cases across the country.

Chemical and other facility operators are urging EPA to reconsider its proposed rule strengthening the risk management program (RMP), charging that the agency has failed to consult adequately with its own experts, resulting in a plan that is “legally vulnerable” because the agency has underestimated its costs and failed to show it will reduce risks.

A new report from the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) harshly criticizes OSHA’s enforcement work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, charging that it “did not sufficiently protect workers from COVID-19 health hazards” and floating five recommendations for policy fixes to address those failures.

Late changes to a proposed final rule by California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) updating first-aid kit requirements for general industry and construction firms are drawing substantial pushback from employer representatives, who argue that companies now face extremely costly and onerous reviews and upgrades of all their kits.

In response to warnings from federal agency watchdogs, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has hired a chief information officer (CIO) to improve information-technology efforts, as well as bolster cybersecurity at the board.

Andrew Staddon, an information technology specialist who formerly served as chief of the State Department’s development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) division, announced on LinkedIn in September that he had been hired as the CIO for the CSB.

A federal investigative agency is ramping up calls for the Biden administration to strengthen a proposed safety rule aimed at preventing chemical-facility incidents, though in recently filed comments the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) backs some provisions that safety advocates oppose or takes a different approach to strengthening other provisions.

Environmentalists are touting new allegations that chlor-alkali industry workers face severe asbestos exposures despite safety guidelines, saying the claims bolster not only the agency’s proposed TSCA ban on the substance but also its overall decision to stop assuming workers will use protective gear in chemical risk evaluations.

OSHA is again attacking South Carolina’s lawsuit targeting the requirement for OSH Act state plans to match the federal agency’s maximum penalty amounts, arguing ahead of a Nov. 16 hearing that the state’s arguments against that mandate are untethered from the “four corners” of its case and thus should be summarily rejected.

California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials are providing more explanation for their insistence that “exclusion pay” be omitted from the agency’s long-term COVID-19 worker-safety standard -- in part by telling Inside OSHA that adding it would unacceptably delay adoption of the rule -- amid a fiery backlash from unions and members of the agency’s standards board.

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG)’s annual report on management challenges facing the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) says vacancies at top staff positions as well as in three of the panel’s five seats remain threats to its work, especially after rule changes that bar the board from functioning with a single member.

EPA has denied industry requests to extend comments on its proposed overhaul of the risk management plan (RMP) rule mandating safeguards against spills and releases of hazardous substance at many facilities, rejecting claims by several trade associations that 60 days is not enough time to fully analyze the “complex” proposal.

California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is demanding that agency staff add “exclusion pay” requirements into a pending final long-term COVID-19 worker-protection standard, further escalating the controversy over the decision by top officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration to cut those mandates over unions’ objection.