The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is taking up a novel case testing whether a “religious, agricultural, communal colony” in South Dakota is an “employer” subject to the OSH Act, after a member of the group died in a 2020 accident while working in its grain bin.
September 17, 2026
OSHA has granted final approval to Maine’s application to administer workplace health and safety standards as they apply to state and local government employees, after the state completed a last round of revisions for the OSH Act state plan that it first submitted a decade ago.
Date:
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is issuing 18 citations to a medical device sterilization company for allegedly failing to protect its employees from overexposure to the toxic solvent ethylene oxide (EtO), amid a growing battle over EPA-crafted risk levels for the carcinogen that industry has argued are unreasonably strict.
Date:
South Carolina is again challenging OSHA’s mandate for states to match federal minimum and maximum penalties for OSH Act violations, targeting the 2016 federal rule that first announced the policy after a federal court rejected its earlier suit that focused on language restating the mandate in the agency’s annual rules adjusting penalties for inflation.
Date:
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s (OSHRC) two recent rulings that rejected OSHA heat-stress citations applying the general duty clause could motivate the agency to more quickly enact its long-promised safety standard specifically governing heat hazards, an employer attorney says.
Date:
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has begun reviewing the final version of the Biden administration’s rule imposing a one-time mandate on companies to report their recent uses of asbestos, a measure that health advocates have sought to expand as they hope it will inform future assessment and regulation of the mineral’s uses but which industry is seeking to narrow.
Date:
A Texas contracting company is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to broadly apply the OSH Act’s “unpreventable employee misconduct” defense, saying an administrative law judge (ALJ) set an unreasonably high bar for invoking it when he upheld an OSHA citation for trench-safety violations against the firm.
Date:
Employer and trade groups are urging California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to extend the comment period on its proposed overhaul of rules for lead exposure in the construction sector and general industry, charging that the new blood lead-level limits and action levels are much too stringent, and that many of the rules are too complicated for regulated entities to understand.
Date:
EPA is opening a new public comment period for its proposed rule that would ban ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos, saying industry and environmental groups have submitted a wave of new data on whether a two-year phase-out for chlor-alkali facilities is practicable and protective of workers, and asking stakeholders to weigh in on that evidence.
Date:
A federal district judge has rejected Amazon’s challenge to a Washington state policy that required it to abate alleged safety violations at a warehouse in Kent, WA, even as it pursues an administrative challenge to the underlying citation, rejecting the company’s argument that it has been deprived of due process in violation of the Constitution.
Date:
OSHA has posted a new regulatory interpretation letter that addresses a host of questions from employers on the Hazard Communication Standard’s (HCS) application to lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, noting several situations when the devices qualify as “consumer products” or “articles” exempt from the rule but highlighting other areas where HCS labels are mandatory.
Date:
OSHA has finalized a year-old interim rule that set out procedures for handling whistleblower complaints under the 2019 Taxpayer First Act (TFA) that created anti-retaliation protections for employees who report potential tax fraud and other violations, largely adopting the model it set out in the interim measure.
Date:
Federal appellate judges appeared skeptical of claims that OSHA’s safety standard for crane assembly and disassembly should not apply to preparatory steps prior to dismantling the equipment during March 7 oral argument over a 2016 accident where a worker was seriously injured when a crane touched a live power line during that preliminary phase.
Date:
OSHA is pushing back against an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that faulted its handling of OSH Act complaints, including claims that officials do not adequately consider testimony from witnesses or complainants in enforcement, saying it is based on a third-party audit that used an unrepresentative sample and misunderstood the agency’s processes.
Date:
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is scheduled to hear debate over whether to amend its workforce safety rules for farming equipment to allow automated tractors and other machines to operate independently in the field, amid pushback from labor and worker-safety groups that say the move would heighten injury and death risks.
Date:
The long-delayed challenge to OSHA’s Trump-era rollback of electronic recordkeeping mandates is set to move forward after a federal appeals court lifted its long-standing stay on the suit, backing safety advocates’ argument that the Biden administration’s repeated delays of a rule to reinstate the requirements undermine the rationale for pausing the case.
Date:
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) appeals board has issued what the agency is calling a “precedential” decision affirming that provisions of water at outdoor worksites must be “as close as practicable” to the areas where employees are working to encourage frequent consumption, bolstering the state’s heat-danger protections.
Date:
A federal district court has rejected South Carolina’s bid to block OSHA from enforcing its long-standing directive for state plans to match federal OSH Act minimum and maximum penalties, including annual inflation adjustments, holding that language in the 2022 adjustment renewing the mandate was not a new action and thus not subject to judicial review.
Date:
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has again upheld an OSHA workplace violence citation that designated a healthcare facility and its management firm as a “single employer” for purposes of OSH Act enforcement, just as a federal appeals court is weighing its use of that test in a prior case targeting the same management company.
Date:
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) chief Jeff Killip acknowledged that the agency continues to struggle to carry out enforcement amid a 30 percent staff vacancy rate during his recent confirmation hearing, while highlighting his agency’s work on indoor heat worker-safety rules and outreach to both vulnerable employees and businesses to improve performance.
Date: