Daily News

Despite opposition from industry, OSHA's top enforcement official is reiterating warnings to industry representatives to be ready for “lots of inspections,” a stance that officials have previously touted but one that is at odds with the Trump administration's general efforts to curb regulation and enhance compliance.

OSHA has sent two draft measures sought by industry groups to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, efforts aimed at completing Obama administration plans to modify existing rules on powered industrial trucks and crane operator qualifications.

Brushing aside concerns from Democrats and labor unions, the Trump administration has proposed reinstating an exemption from Labor Department (DOL) rules to allow teens to operate powered patient lifts in healthcare, arguing that guidance from OSHA and other agencies is sufficient to mitigate any risks.

“The Department believes that adhering to such best practices, rather than a blanket prohibition on the independent operation of power-driven patient lifts, may be the best way to ensure that 16- and 17-year-old workers can operate these devices safely,” the proposed rule says.

OSHA's recently-updated Unified Agenda of pending rules shows the Trump administration continuing to advance rollbacks of major Obama-era rules, some at a delayed pace, spurring renewed criticism from labor advocates who argue the agency is failing to significantly advance necessary worker health and safety regulations.

Labor groups are urging OSHA officials to investigate the agency's practices for responding to whistleblower complaints of retaliation in the financial sector to ensure agency staffing is adequate to ensure prompt resolution of complaints, as the Trump administration has dropped a committee that informed the agency's whistleblower policies.

The Trump administration is expanding its rollback of an Obama-era injury and illness reporting rule with a new memo that critics say will curtail OSHA enforcement of the rule's anti-retaliation provisions, as dozens of Senate Democrats are urging the agency to drop a proposed rule that would limit the reporting requirements of the Obama rule.

Chemical industry attorneys are urging EPA to accelerate its plan to undo Obama-era changes tightening the risk management plan (RMP) facility safety program, after the agency opted against appealing a court ruling that scrapped the Trump administration's delay of the revisions and reinstated looming compliance deadlines.

California’s attorney general (AG) is strongly defending the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's (CSB) role in investigating accidents and recommending workplace safety and other rules, while backing CSB's push for a broad subpoena to investigate a refinery explosion, amid the Trump administration's calls to scrap the agency.

Industry attorneys are arguing that OSHA enforcement has risen during the Trump administration as the lack of a confirmed political leader has left career staff wielding greater influence over the agency's enforcement approach, and pushing back against labor groups' assertions that agency enforcement is declining at an “accelerated pace.”

OSHA is advancing plans for a safety standard to protect communications tower workers from falls and other hazards, seeking input on documents supporting a small business advisors' review this summer of effects of a rule on employers, though a former agency official says Trump administration deregulatory orders dim the rule's prospects.

An appellate court has upheld a lower court’s ruling limiting OSHA's authority to expand a facility inspection beyond the circumstances of a reported incident, faulting the agency's assertions that facility hazards and injury reports support “reasonable suspicion” of violations, though one panelist offered support for the agency's stance.

The Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), which advocates for strict public health and environment rules, is urging OSHA to craft new standards to protect workers from hazards they face when responding to disasters such as hurricanes, including new protections from ergonomic risks and heat stress, and greater enforcement during disaster responses.

Industry groups are urging OSHA to broaden its proposed rollback of an Obama-era injury and illness reporting rule to further curtail requirements for electronic reporting of injury data and the rule's anti-retaliation provisions, while labor groups and Democratic state officials are arguing the proposed revisions are unwarranted and will harm worker safety.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is urging an appellate court to overturn a lower court ruling that partially denied its request for a broad subpoena for information related to an incident at an Exxon Mobil refinery, arguing the court abused its discretion in rejecting some subpoenas as “not relevant and material” to its inquiry.

Backing calls by Democrats and labor groups, NIOSH is defending the Obama OSHA's update to the injury and illness recordkeeping program, arguing that requirements for employers to submit detailed injury and illness data under the rule would inform worker protection efforts, and help OSHA prioritize facilities for enforcement.

Labor and food safety groups are warning they will sue the Trump administration if it allows additional poultry processing plants to qualify for waivers from its line-speed inspection rules under a newly announced plan to expand the existing waiver program, in part over concerns that the waivers will increase workplace safety risks.

“If they start granting waivers, there will be many organizations that are willing to file lawsuits,” Deborah Berkowitz, a former Obama OSHA policy adviser now with the National Employment Law Project (NELP), tells Inside OSHA.

Environmentalists are petitioning EPA to amend the agency's Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule under the revised toxics law to require businesses to report uses of asbestos, an effort advocates say would close a loophole created when EPA excluded asbestos from CDR because it is “naturally occurring,” and would provide valuable data to workers.

Public Citizen is defending its request for a federal court to grant a preliminary injunction compelling the Trump administration to implement delayed requirements of an Obama-era worker injury and illness reporting rule, arguing that it meets the grounds for relief because it is harmed by the delay and is likely to succeed in the litigation.

Former OSHA officials are pointing to the Labor Department Office of Inspector General's (OIG) recent finding that half of all severe injuries go unreported as evidence that the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda is weakening OSHA oversight, blaming the repeal of an Obama-era record-keeping rule for under-reporting of severe injuries.

“It limits OSHA's ability to cite patterns of under-reporting,” Jordan Barab, former OSHA deputy administrator, said of the repeal of the Volks rule.

A public interest group is calling for stepped up enforcement of EPA administered industrial facility safety rules that require disclosure of facilities' data after a federal court expedited compliance with an Obama-era rule strengthening the agency's accident prevention program, even as the Trump administration seeks to roll the rule back.

An industry attorney says that because of the Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule's staggered implementation deadlines, facilities will have to begin complying with some facility audit and emergency coordination provisions.