Daily News

A labor safety group and North Carolina are questioning EPA's proposed approval of an alternative method for removal of asbestos-containing cement (A/C) pipe, which they say may be impractical to achieve and violate OSHA standards.

In comments submitted to EPA on its April 25 proposed approval of the alternative method as compliant with EPA air toxics regulations, the Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America (LHSFNA) warns that the new method might not square with OSHA rules on asbestos.

House and Senate Democrats have introduced a bill strengthening public employees' right to organize and bargain collectively, pushing back against the Supreme Court's ruling late last month blocking public-sector labor unions from compelling dues, which labor groups and others fear will curtail unions' lobbying for stricter workplace safety and other rules.

The Senate has unanimously approved compromise legislation that would reauthorize EPA's authority to collect industry fees to support timely pesticide reviews, in exchange for preserving for three years two Obama-era rules aimed at protecting farmworkers from exposure to pesticides that the Trump administration had moved to roll back.

Brushing aside Trump administration's requests to cut worker safety programs, Senate appropriators have approved legislation boosting funding for OSHA and other agencies in fiscal year 2019, while also instructing the agency to resume its practice of posting fatality information on its website as it had done under the Obama administration.

The bill would provide $556.78 million in funding for OSHA, a boost of $4 million from FY18 appropriated levels and an increase over the $545.2 million the House is proposing.

Democrats and labor union officials are concerned that the Supreme Court's ruling that public sector workers cannot be required to pay labor dues -- even if they benefit from any contract -- could undercut workplace safety, arguing that the ruling would curtail unions' power and their insistence on safety and other requirements.

Senate appropriators are seeking a $4 million funding increase for OSHA in fiscal year 2019, while also preserving a workplace safety training program, a Senate source says, plans that are at odds with provisions in a companion House bill, which GOP leaders stalled amid continuing controversy over the Trump administration's immigration policies.

EPA is seeking to strengthen its 2001 lead paint dust hazard standards that trigger abatement and protective measures in homes and facilities undergoing renovation and repair but the agency is declining, for now, environmentalists calls for a new definition of “lead paint” that informs federal efforts to reduce exposure to lead in paint.

Environmentalists' lawsuit challenging EPA's framework for reviewing new chemicals' risks, including to workers, appears to face legal hurdles because it challenges a policy that is not yet final but it nevertheless appears to have dissuaded the agency from following the novel process it floated last year to speed chemical reviews, industry and environmental attorneys say.

The Trump administration is proposing to merge the Departments of Education (DOE) and Labor (DOL) into a new Department of Education and Workforce in which OSHA would be placed into an “enforcement” sub agency, a plan that is drawing concern from Democrats and labor groups who fear it would undercut the agency's workplace safety mission.

The House has unanimously approved a bill that would create an advisory committee to provide recommendations to the Labor Department (DOL) on ways to limit the impact of opioids on workplace safety, though in a nod to GOP fears about new regulations, the panel's jurisdiction is limited to providing “informational resources and best practices.”

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) in a new report is faulting OSHA for scaling back enforcement in the first years of the Trump administration, arguing that enforcement is continuing to decline at an “accelerated pace,” despite the agency's recent touting of an uptick in inspection numbers in fiscal year (FY) 2017 over the prior year.

Despite plans to advance an Obama-era proposal to regulate a paint stripping chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), recently released EPA documents suggest the agency will not soon pursue other proposed TSCA rules restricting uses of two other substances blamed for risks to workers, a move that is worrying environmentalists.

Democratic appropriators are signaling that they will offer a series of amendments to pending fiscal year 2019 funding legislation for the Labor Department and other agencies that they say will bolster funding for OSHA and remove “poison pill” policy provisions.

As the Trump administration works to roll back the Obama-era rule strengthening EPA's facility accident prevention program, House Democrats are seeking to codify portions of the rule in pending legislation renewing the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) facility security program and incorporate some of its provisions into any future DHS program.

OSHA has scaled back its termination procedures for participants in the agency's Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), narrowing conditions spelled out in a 2013 Obama-era policy for when participating sites must be removed from the program that is designed to recognize exemplary workplace safety and health efforts.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is urging lawmakers to bolster chemical information sharing between facilities and communities even as EPA is proposing to scrap some of the provisions of the Obama-era final rule updating its facility accident prevention program that would bolster such sharing of facility data.

Labor and other groups are asking a federal court to quickly require the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) to issue a rule requiring chemical facilities to report their accidental releases following an incident, arguing they have standing to bring their case and that a slew of government documents establish a record of CSB's inaction.

OSHA's review commission appears split over when and how the agency can use its general duty clause powers to cite employers for hazards not covered by the agency's standards, suggesting that the outcome of two pending cases under review may not provide clear indications of how regulators may proceed in the future.

As House Republicans prepare for a possible floor debate on immigration legislation, Democrats and labor unions are stepping up their efforts to bolster workplace safety for migrant workers, building on an issue that has created a rift in the GOP which has grown deeper in the face of the Trump administration's strict limits on immigration.

OSHA's enforcement review commission is holding unusual oral arguments June 7 in two closely watched cases that attorneys say could test the agency's power to cite employers under its general duty clause for heat stress and workplace violence -- two emerging issues for which OSHA has not set unique standards and is thus forced to rely on its general duty powers when citing employers.