Correction Appended
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has blocked implementation of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, writing in a one-page order that the rule appears to have “grave statutory and constitutional issues,” marking the first victory for opponents of the ETS in a barrage of pending suits over its legality.
OSHA’s new emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination is drawing mixed reactions from stakeholders, as safety advocates are generally backing the rule but say it is not protective enough, while industry and others split between groups welcoming the mandate, sometimes with reservations, and others who say it is unlawful.
OSHA has released its emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccinations, with a Jan. 4 deadline for employers with 100 or more workers to begin requiring their employees to either show proof of vaccination or test weekly for the coronavirus, with administrative and record keeping mandates set to take effect Dec. 5.
Manufacturers are urging OSHA to adopt industry consensus standards as the basis for first-time updates to its 1971 mechanical power press rule, and to consider a separate standard for hydraulic and pneumatic presses, but are split on the feasibility and cost of quickly implementing any such changes.
Stakeholders on all sides say Democrats’ proposal to raise the OSH Act’s cap on penalties to $700,000 per violation would reshape OSHA enforcement, with labor and safety groups praising the bill as a much-needed boost to deterrence while employers’ attorneys are predicting a “big” increase in legal challenges to individual fines.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccination standard and the agency says it will release the rule “in the coming days,” as Republican state leaders and other opponents of vaccine mandates ready an expected blitz of legal challenges.
House members used recent hearings on COVID-19 issues to raise competing claims on OSHA’s impending vaccination standard, with Republicans arguing that the rule could exacerbate supply chain shortages and other economic fallout from the pandemic while Democrats said the agency must take a strict approach to protect workers.
Just-released legislative text that House Democratic leaders say implements a deal between President Joe Biden and Senate moderates for a $1.75 trillion social spending package maintains the previously announced proposal to raise statutory penalties for OSH Act violations by a factor of 10, along with $707 million in funding for OSHA itself.
OSHA will reconstitute its Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH), six years after the body last met, as part of a wide-ranging executive order from President Joe Biden that seeks to reconstitute over 30 executive-level advisory panels that the Trump administration scrapped in 2017.
OSHA’s long-awaited call for input on a federal heat danger standard details dozens of subjects where the agency is seeking data and recommendations from stakeholders, including lessons learned from existing state and employer heat programs, metrics for identifying dangerous temperatures, and equity issues related to the hazard.
The Senate has confirmed Doug Parker as the first permanent head of OSHA since the Obama era in a mostly party-line Oct. 25 vote that puts the former California work-safety chief in control of the agency just as it is poised to implement a much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine standard and a host of the administration’s other priorities.
A new decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit refusing to block Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers over religious-freedom claims could bode well for OSHA’s impending general-industry vaccine standard, but attorneys say any such case is still likely to go to the Supreme Court.
Senate leaders are teeing up two long-awaited steps for OSHA, scheduling a floor vote for Oct. 25 on former California safety chief Doug Parker’s nomination to lead the agency and proposing a fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill that includes a $74.1 million funding boost largely focused on its enforcement work.
OSHA is warning three states that it could withdraw their state plan status unless they craft COVID-19 protections for healthcare workers, arguing that all three have failed to adopt counterparts to the agency’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) and thus violated the mandate to maintain programs “at least as effective” as federal standards.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of OSHA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for a nationwide heat danger standard, setting the stage for what stakeholders expect to be a preliminary request for input that will inform the standard-setting process.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has started stakeholder meetings on OSHA’s upcoming emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, and several industry groups tell Inside OSHA they have used their sessions to raise concerns on implementation and recordkeeping requirements in the rule.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit could soon decide whether changes in state and federal workplace safety guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic have rendered moot litigation over employers’ alleged failures to comply with earlier safeguards, as it weighs new arguments in Amazon workers’ suit over warehouse conditions.
Whistleblower protection groups are asking OSHA to take new steps to help undocumented workers report safety violations and seek protection from unlawful retaliation following a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo ending immigration agencies’ practice of raiding work site to make mass arrests.
OSHA has sent its hotly-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine emergency temporary standard (ETS) for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, signaling the administration could soon enact its mandate for large private-sector employers to set strict vaccination requirements for their workers.
The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is ramping up its calls for OSHA to broaden its process safety management (PSM) standard to cover additional “reactive hazards,” along with a parallel push for EPA to bolster its chemical-safety rules, after a recent investigation blamed the current policies for failing to prevent a fatal hydrogen gas explosion.