Several states are starting to use the threat of enforcement to implement non-binding COVID-19 workplace safety measures including guidance documents issued by OSHA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says an attorney who sees the efforts as a move by the states to enforcing voluntary safety steps.
September 17, 2026
California lawmakers have approved a controversial labor-backed bill to create an extensive list of notices that employers would have to provide to employees and others if a worker is exposed to COVID-19 and would authorize the state’s OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to shut down facilities if they are an “imminent hazard” to workers due to the virus.
Date:
Michigan’s state workplace safety agency is targeting its COVID-19 enforcement on retail businesses through an “emphasis program” focused primarily on restaurants with grocery stores, gas stations, and convenience stores as secondary priorities, and applying the state’s existing safety rules rather than issuing a pandemic-specific standard.
Date:
Oregon officials say their recently proposed COVID-19 workplace safety standard is largely designed to “formalize and standardize” pandemic employee protection guidance from OSHA and other agencies while adding specific requirements for social distancing, medical removal and infection-control planning.
Date:
The Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is warning that the COVID-19 pandemic has set off a flood of whistleblower complaints to OSHA even as the agency’s capacity to handle new complaints has declined, and is urging officials to bolster that capacity through new hiring and administrative measures.
Date:
Amazon.com employees are urging a federal district court to reject the company’s arguments that their claims of inadequate COVID-19 protections at a New York City warehouse fall within OSHA’s “primary jurisdiction,” saying their claims that the retailer is violating state laws and pandemic orders are separate from any agency role.
Date:
OSHA’s final revisions to beryllium worker exposure standards follow through on the agency’s proposal to “tailor” the rule’s application to the shipyard and construction industries, setting up potential legal battles with health and labor and industry groups that have said various aspects of the proposal lack a legal or scientific basis.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date:
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.
Date: