OSHA is instructing regional enforcement officers to avoid grouping together employers’ alleged health and safety violations and instead prioritize “instance-by-instance” citations that could lead to greatly increased overall penalties, loosening a long-standing policy that said such citations should only come in response to “clear bad faith” by an employer.
September 17, 2026
With new support from 18 more lawmakers, a group of House and Senate Democrats is renewing its call for EPA to toughen its proposed risk management program (RMP) rule when it finalizes the rule later this year, seeking to shore up the rulemaking just days after one of their key supporters announced plans to leave EPA after failing to win Senate confirmation.
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Industry attorneys say an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) case where the panel underlined the “creating employer” test for liability at multi-employer worksites could also showcase the limits of that doctrine for OSHA enforcement, especially the need to prove that the company had knowledge of the danger it allegedly created.
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Officials with the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) say the group is pushing both OSHA and EPA to prioritize enforcing their Risk Management Program (RMP) and process safety management (PSM) standard facility safety policies rather than overhauling and expanding them through pending rules.
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OSHA is urging a federal appeals court to reject an employer’s arguments that the OSH Act’s safety standard program is unconstitutional under the “non-delegation” doctrine, arguing that both the law itself and Supreme Court precedent establish well-defined limits on that authority.
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OSHA is citing Amazon over a wide range of alleged safety violations at three of the retailer’s warehouses in Florida, Illinois and New York, marking the latest step in an investigation prompted by rare referrals from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the agency.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has narrowly voted to recommend that agency staff add “exclusion pay” requirements to a forthcoming long-term infectious disease standard for general industry, renewing debate over the mandate after officials dropped it from new COVID-19 safety standards.
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Employer representatives and worker-safety advocates are targeting a host of upcoming California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) draft safety rules for scrutiny and likely policy battles, including standards for lead exposures, workplace violence, indoor heat, and a permanent infectious disease standard that is expected to include a controversial “exclusion pay” requirement.
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OSHA is raising its minimum and maximum penalties for OSH Act violations by 7.7 percent to account for inflation, an even larger hike than the prior year and one the agency is again ordering states to adopt in their own work-safety programs even as it awaits a federal judge’s ruling in litigation over whether that mandate is lawful.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is underscoring the importance of the “creating employer” doctrine for identifying liability for safety violations at multi-employer worksites, as the panel remanded for new proceedings a case where an administrative law judge (ALJ) rejected an OSHA crane-safety violation under separate test for identifying “controlling” employers at such sites.
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Health and work-safety groups that sued over OSHA’s Trump-era rollback of electronic recordkeeping mandates are pressing to resume their suit after the Biden administration moved its target for finalizing a new, stricter rule from March to June, saying the agency’s “pattern of reneging on its agreements” means litigation is the only sure path to resolve their claims.
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OSHA’s director of standards and guidance is vowing that the agency will move quickly on its long-awaited nationwide heat danger standard, telling a key advisory committee that it is actively developing new guidance and expects to initiate a small-business consultation within months.
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Healthcare employers and trade groups representing an array of other, overlapping sectors are continuing to push OSHA to either drop its plan for a final COVID-19 safety standard in healthcare workplaces, or tie it strictly to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, as the White House advances its review of the rule.
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Groups that advocate for domestic workers are intensifying pressure on California lawmakers and regulators to pursue first-time workplace safety standards for the sector, following a Jan. 9 webinar where they expressed frustration with a California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) official who overstated current protections for domestic work.
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OSHA has posted online a new batch of regulatory interpretation letters for the first time in more than six months, offering answers to employers’ questions for clarification on exit signage requirements, fall protections for certain cranes, and compliance with lockout/tagout standards during pipeline repair.
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EPA will collect $600,000 in penalties for alleged Risk Management Program (RMP) violations by a Denver chemical distribution site under a newly announced settlement that also includes a $200,000 supplemental environmental project (SEP) -- just as the agency is readying a new RMP rule that would tighten many of its requirements.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has set oral argument for early March in a construction firm’s clash with OSHA over the agency’s safety standards for crane assembly and disassembly, teeing up arguments on whether those requirements “clearly” apply to preparatory work as the agency says, and how to read any ambiguity in the rule.
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For the second time in less than three months, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is pressing EPA to prioritize hydrofluoric acid (HF) for TSCA evaluation, and to also boost inspections of facilities that work with the chemical, following the board’s investigation of a Wisconsin refinery explosion.
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As an influential OSHA advisory panel prepares to meet Jan. 10, the agency is seeking nominees for six seats on its National Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH), opening a fresh round of nominations even as the agency has yet to announce selections for another four terms set to expire in less than two weeks.
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Employer attorneys are preparing for California’s first steps to implement several new worker-safety laws slated to take effect in 2023, including measures extending COVID-19 sick-leave requirements and new mandates for protecting employees during certain “emergency” events.
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