California lawmakers are advancing bills to ban employers from preventing workers from wearing masks or respirators, place new restrictions and certification requirements on stone fabrication shops to protect workers from crystalline silica, and require an academic study and new advisory panel on understaffing and vacancies at Cal/OSHA.
Environmental and labor groups are expected to reiterate their strong support for the Biden-era proposed heat illness and injury standard during an upcoming public hearing while urging OSHA to make additional changes to the regulation that they argue will strengthen it and prevent even more deaths as extreme heat becomes more common.
Employer attorneys are generally praising recently published guidance documents by New York’s Department of Labor (NYDOL) for companies to comply with the state’s new retail worker violence-prevention rules, but some say questions remain over several key provisions including training requirements related to active-shooter drills.
Employer attorneys are seeing mixed results in key revisions to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) draft workplace violence-prevention rules, welcoming the removal of language barring employers from requiring employees to confront individuals suspected of committing a crime while criticizing an updated definition of “workplace violence hazards.”
A New Jersey steel fabricator is seeking summary judgment in its lawsuit claiming that Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) review of enforcement actions is unconstitutional, an early test for Trump officials on whether federal courts must review enforcement actions or the panel’s administrative law judges (ALJs).
A panel of 5th Circuit judges appears skeptical of EPA’s TSCA authority to regulate workplace exposures, as well as its threshold risk finding of methylene chloride, raising the prospect that any ruling in the potentially precedent-setting case could again undercut agency efforts to regulate chemicals as the circuit did in a 1991 asbestos case.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups are urging OSHA to shift the Biden-era proposed heat safety standard from a one-size-fits-all prescription to a performance-based standard, similar to recent Nevada requirements, a message they are expected to deliver at an upcoming hearing on the proposal.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is renewing its calls for OSHA to amend its Process Safety Management (PSM) regulation in response to an incident at a Louisiana chemical facility, an action the Trump administration is almost certainly not going to take.
Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are pressing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to provide details on the department’s staffing and program cuts -- including a study of cancer rates in firefighters -- questioning the department’s authority to make such changes.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and industry groups are urging the 8th Circuit to again reject unions’ attempt to intervene in consolidated litigation over the agency’s silica dust rule, arguing the unions have provided no new evidence that the court should reverse its prior denial.
The Trump administration is continuing its push for a federal court to dismiss a West Virginia coal miner’s lawsuit challenging staffing cuts at a key federal health agency, raising standing and sovereign immunity defenses to argue there is nothing for the court to decide.
Employer attorneys are urging companies to reexamine their environment, health and safety (EHS) recordkeeping policies in light of updated OSHA inspection guidance, warning that even companies with comparatively low injury and illness rates may be flagged for inspection if OSHA suspects inaccurate reporting.
Public Citizen and the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) are renewing their push for OSHA to limit the work hours of resident physicians, arguing in a new petition that a medical education accreditation council has failed to demonstrate that it can establish and enforce standards for safe and healthful working conditions.
Labor unions and Democratic lawmakers are mounting an aggressive campaign to reinstate the work force slashed by the Trump administration at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), with lawmakers raising concerns in congressional hearings and unions suing to ensure “the whole of NIOSH is functional.”
Unions are urging a federal appeals court to reconsider its denial of their motion to intervene in litigation over the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) silica dust rule, arguing the court acted prematurely and failed to consider key arguments supporting their participation.
North Dakota is urging a federal court to reject OSHA’s efforts to dismiss litigation challenging an agency investigation into alleged whistleblower retaliation by the state’s environment department, arguing OSHA’s position “ignores the finer points” of the state’s sovereign immunity claims.
Ahead of OSHA’s public hearing next month on a Biden-era proposed heat illness prevention rule, House Republican lawmakers and industry representatives are pointing to the rule as a key example of agency overreach, questioning both its utility and feasibility for industries operating across diverse climates and conditions.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is weighing a petition from construction industry groups to delay by one year the July 1 effective date of controversial regulatory amendments to the state’s fall-protection standard for residential construction workers that aim to meet federal OSHA’s requirements.
The Labor Department (DOL) is urging the 6th Circuit to deny a paper company’s attempt to overturn an OSHA finding the company violated so-called lockout/tagout requirements, arguing an administrative law judge (ALJ) properly found the company exposed workers to serious hazards from unexpected machine startup.
The Trump EPA has informed the 5th Circuit that it is dropping its defense of two key issues related to assessing risks to workers in a consolidated challenge to the agency’s TSCA risk management rule for methylene chloride, noting the issues are the subject of the agency’s “framework” rule that is being revised.