Daily News

OSHA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are weighing an update to a 1994 agreement encouraging USDA food safety inspectors to report chemical hazards to OSHA, after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year noted gaps protecting workers, and advocates are pressing for new research on chemical hazards.

A former senior OSHA official is faulting a softening in tone in the agency's announcements of workplace safety violations, arguing that strong language is necessary to maximize the deterrent effect of OSHA enforcement actions, though industry attorneys long opposed the Obama-era press release policy as unnecessary “regulation by shaming."

OSHA has issued a proposed rule revising an Obama-era update to the agency's injury and illness recordkeeping program that would require employers to report only summary information to the agency, citing fears of disclosure of worker injury data under public records law, though labor groups are already challenging Trump administration efforts to curtail the Obama-era rule.

In a new final agenda for construction safety research, a coalition convened by NIOSH is backing labor groups' calls for prioritizing research on protecting workers from falls and during natural or man-made disasters, while also softening past criticism of OSHA's lockout/tagout standard, which the Obama OSHA sought to revise, despite industry opposition.

State, health and citizen groups are launching a lawsuit against the Labor Department (DOL) and OSHA over their alleged failure to enforce the Obama administration's May 2016 record-keeping and reporting rule update, charging that the agency's recent announcement delaying a reporting deadline failed to follow notice-and-comment procedures.

White House officials reviewing EPA's draft proposal gutting the Obama-era update to the agency's facility accident prevention program sought to bolster the basis for the agency's rollback, backing industry arguments that the update was unnecessary and that rolling it back would provide added benefits by improving facility safety.

A proposed EPA settlement requiring a Missouri-based agricultural products company to perform third-party audits to prevent facility accidents undermines the Trump administration's roll back of equivalent Obama-era policies in the agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule, environmentalists say.

A federal appellate court is upholding a criminal conviction and a maximum penalty against an employer who failed to provide fall protection to an employee who fell to his death, a rare use of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act's criminal enforcement authority, which the Obama administration sought to bolster.

And while the unusual conviction may not set a broad precedent, as fall protection is OSHA's most cited standard, it buoys the enforcement tool which attorneys warned may be more frequently utilized under the “law and order” administration.

Senate Democrats are signaling that they will not cooperate with congressional talks over the Trump administration's sweeping government reorganization plan, arguing their requests for the data informing the proposal were “stonewalled,” although Republicans argue that they are just at the “start” of the process.

A free market group's suit seeking to retroactively extend the Congressional Review Act's (CRA) requirements to OSHA and other agencies' guidance documents is facing a major test as the Justice Department is seeking to dismiss it, arguing in part that courts lack jurisdiction to review agencies' alleged failure to submit the policies to Congress for possible repeal.

EPA is planning to consider workers' exposures to existing chemicals when it assesses substances' risks for possible regulation under the revised toxics law, noting that OSHA has acknowledged that its exposure limits for many chemicals are “outdated and inadequate.”

But in a statement to Inside EPA, EPA says that it will confer with OSHA before it imposes any new requirements.

Former OSHA officials and a coalition of over 100 labor groups are formally petitioning OSHA to craft a federal standard protecting workers from exposure to excessive heat, though one former official says that imminent Democratic legislation requiring such a standard is likely the most feasible path forward under the Trump administration.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is urging a federal court to reject environmentalists' suit seeking to require a rule mandating facilities report their accidental releases, charging, among other things, that the plaintiffs lack standing, though CSB says that if the court requires such a rule it may be “difficult” given administration plans to kill the agency.

EPA is faulting environmentalists' claims that a recent ruling vacating a highway agency's penalty delay backs their suit seeking to scrap the Trump administration's delay of an Obama-era update to EPA's facility safety program, arguing that the Clean Air Act grants EPA authority to set rules' effective dates, and that it sought input prior to issuing the delay.

House Republican appropriators have rejected Democratic efforts to restore funding for OSHA in fiscal year 2019, prompting renewed criticism from Democrats that the Trump administration and their House GOP supporters are not adequately protecting workers, though companion Senate legislation seeks to increase OSHA funds in FY19.

In response to the growing concerns about sexual harassment in the workplace, labor groups are launching a network aimed at mobilizing grassroots efforts to push for stronger regional OSHA enforcement over especially vulnerable workers in sectors such as healthcare, house keeping and farming, just as OSHA begins considering the issue.

Labor supporters are concerned that President Donald Trump's just-announced Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, has often ruled in favor of employers in OSHA cases during his appellate court tenure, sparking fears that the conservative jurist will continue to express a “hostility” to the agency if confirmed to the high court.

“There is clear evidence that Kavanaugh is overly friendly to corporate America, and hostile to workplace safety, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the environment,” writes former Obama-era OSHA Deputy Chief Jordan Barab.

Senators are urging the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to gather more information, more frequently about the scope of the contingent workforce, underscoring concerns by labor advocates and Democrats who are pushing legislation to better protect workers classified as “independent contractors” in the so-called on-demand economy.

Correction Appended

As OSHA struggles to limit heat risks to workers, a just-released report from NIOSH says the agency's current guidance regarding occupational heat stress may not be sufficiently protective, and is urging employers to take a more conservative approach just as temperatures continue to rise in the summer season.

Lawmakers are split over the potential effects on OSHA stemming from the Trump administration's plan to merge the Departments of Education (DOE) and Labor (DOL), with Republicans urging officials to use any merger to bolster states' funding and oversight responsibilities while Democrats fear it will curb workplace safety enforcement.

The Trump administration last month proposed merging DOE and DOL into a new Department of Education and Workforce, with OSHA slated to be placed into an “enforcement” sub-agency.