Daily News

Meat and farming industry groups are backing the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its legal defense of a program that allows hog slaughterhouses to increase their line speeds above regulatory maximum limits, arguing that despite unions’ claims there is no proof that higher speeds will endanger workers.

OSHA in a new legal filing is downplaying arguments that employers must scrupulously follow all agency guidance for protecting workers from COVID-19 infections, instead saying the guides set out a “hierarchy of controls” and companies should adopt “a proper mix of protective measures” to avoid OSHA enforcement action.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Mine Health and Safety Administration (MSHA) is defending its decision not to craft an enforceable COVID-19 safety standard to protect mine workers, reinforcing the department’s broad policy of using guidance instead of binding rules to guide employers’ responses to the pandemic.

OSHA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued guidance for food manufacturing and processing companies to protect employees from COVID-19 risks, urging them craft detailed infection control plans among other measures and signaling that employers who refuse could face enforcement action.

The 16-page checklist document, released Aug. 19, sets out best practices for food-sector operations that are either continuing or resuming operations during the pandemic.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized a rule limiting OSHA and other agencies’ use of guidance documents, including setting notice-and-comment requirements for “significant” guides and barring officials from setting binding policy through guidance, creating potential hurdles for OSHA’s COVID-19 guidance strategy.

Industry attorneys say the Senate GOP caucus sees Democrats’ sudden push to block budget and service cuts at the Postal Service as a fresh opportunity to negotiate on the next COVID-19 response bill, circulating a “skinny” relief bill detailing Republicans’ preferred provisions including employer liability waivers.

Workers at a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant say OSHA violated its own inspection procedures when it investigated their claim of an “imminent” danger from COVID-19 exposures at the facility, and the workers say the OSH Act gives the agency no choice but to take enforcement action including a new surprise inspection.

The California Chamber of Commerce is leading a push for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration to intervene in a Cal/OSHA policy that would mandate companies to equip employees with N95 respirator masks to protect against wildfire smoke, saying it might be impossible to comply because of mask shortages due to COVID-19.

“We will be seeking some form of feasible pathway to compliance,” says one industry source.

Amazon is touting a California state court ruling that dismissed a worker’s claims that the online retailer has adopted unlawfully lax workplace COVID-19 protections in a bid to fight a similar suit in federal court, arguing that federal judges should follow the same logic and defer to OSHA’s enforcement and rulemaking discretion.

OSHA has signed an “alliance” with the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), which represents meat and turkey processors, aiming to reduce COVID-19 exposure risks for employees in meatpacking facilities -- the latest step in the agency’s approach to issuing sector-specific, non-binding guides in lieu of binding standards for the pandemic.

But the agreement is not mandatory and falls short of strict enforceable OSHA rules that worker safety groups and others are seeking in order to adequately protect employees in the meatpacking sector from the risks of COVID-19.

Attorneys representing employers say OSHA is actively tracking workplaces’ compliance with COVID-19 guides crafted by the agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warning that even though the documents are formally non-binding, employers who ignore them risk an OSHA enforcement action.

California’s OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards board staff is recommending that the board deny a recent petition from labor groups to adopt a COVID-19-specific emergency temporary standard (ETS) to further protect employees from the virus, concluding that enforcement of comprehensive existing regulations is the best path forward.

OSHA has updated its COVID-19 guidance to employers by adding a provision urging mandatory cloth face coverings for workers as a “source control” measure to protect against exposure to the virus, saying studies have shown the coverings to be effective at containing the spread of the coronavirus.

Still, the agency’s guide -- which it updated in recent weeks -- notes that cloth face coverings are not as effective as medically tested protective gear in guarding against exposure to the virus.

The halt in Congress’ negotiations over a coronavirus response bill means supporters of either a legislative mandate for either OSHA issuing a standard for worker COVID-19 protections or employer virus liability waivers are unlikely to quickly see progress at the federal level, turning focus to states’ rules addressing the pandemic.

Several recent administrative law judge (ALJ) rulings scrapping OSHA citations against the Postal Service (USPS) for exposing mail carriers to excessive heat could end the agency’s longstanding reliance on a National Weather Service (NWS) guide for determining the severity of heat exposures.

OSHA is touting a new decision from an administrative law judge (ALJ) that held a New York flooring maker liable for falsely claiming to have corrected a series of prior workplace violations, calling it a marker for the importance of addressing identified safety hazards following an enforcement action.

OSHA is asking a federal district court to reject a lawsuit that seeks to mandate enforcement action against a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant over fears about inadequate worker protections against COVID-19, arguing that the workers have not met the OSH Act’s “high bar” to override regulators’ enforcement discretion.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected the AFL-CIO’s bid for rehearing in its suit aiming to force OSHA to craft a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), shifting focus from the case back to Congress’ negotiations over potentially mandating a virus standard in the next pandemic response bill.

An official with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) says the state’s novel emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 that could be a model for other states focuses largely on mandatory infection control plans for all workplaces that carry at least a “medium” infection risk.

The House has approved its fiscal year 2021 budget for OSHA with amendments that would boost the agency’s whistleblower programs and require issuance of a binding workplace standard for COVID-19, setting up an eventual clash with the Senate although that chamber has yet to release its own slate of funding bills.