OSHA chief David Michaels emphasized in a conference call Monday his view that the OSH Act mandate to keep workplaces free of recognized hazards includes feasible measures to abate workplace violence, and said in the last four years OSHA has issued 18 citations under Section 5(a)1 related to the issue.
September 17, 2026
Michaels: OSHA Issued 18 Workplace Violence Citations In Four Years, Seeks To Prevent Teen Tragedies
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OSHA chief David Michaels says the agency last year issued 11 heat illness-related citations under the general duty clause, illuminating how forcefully OSHA is pushing its national initiative to address heat stress, particularly for vulnerable workers including temporary employees and those who have not been properly acclimated to extreme summertime temperatures.
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At least two Republican lawmakers including the head of the House oversight committee are strongly suggesting Chemical Safety Board Chair Rafael Moure-Eraso consider stepping down amid allegations of mismanagement, possible whistleblower reprisal and continuing rifts among current and former board members and staff that the congressmen view as rendering the investigative agency paralyzed.
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OSHA is rolling out a new agreement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in which the safety and health agency refers past-deadline whistleblower complaints under the OSH Act Section 11(c) to the labor board for potential filing as unfair labor practices complaints so that the matter can still be addressed -- a move lauded by whistleblower advocates but also raising some concern on the management side about whether NLRB houses the expertise to handle allegations of OSHA standards violations.
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House Oversight and Government Reform Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) has unleashed an attack on what the committee deems “management failures” at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board along with alleged reprisal against whistleblowers, with the congressional panel convening a hearing this week to put the investigative agency under a microscope, a move that occurs shortly after the board lost one of its three members to a controversy-laden resignation.
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NIOSH has backed off its relatively aggressive call earlier this year for OSHA to consider two approaches -- one, called the “safety case” model, which has drawn apprehension in both management and labor circles, and the other known as “inherently safer design” -- as OSHA casts a wide net for information about possible future changes to its process safety management (PSM) and related regulations.
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NIOSH chief John Howard is pushing as a front-and-center issue for employers both nationally and overseas that the safety and health of all employees is a key sustainable business practice, a notion that conforms with the agency head's broader view of a need for “Total Worker Health” that far exceeds the bounds of OSHA compliance and which he says is vital to the world's work force and economic performance.
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Public health groups are criticizing environmental regulators for selecting more industry speakers than others at recent and upcoming public meetings to discuss pending Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) chemical assessments, charging the selection will enhance industry influence -- concerns lodged as OSHA undertakes its own review of chemical exposure limits based on modern scientific risk assessments.
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OSHA has renewed its emphasis on safe patient handling in nursing homes by publishing a new brochure aimed at curbing what it describes as a persistent problem of musculoskeletal injury incidence rates throughout the industry, leading to raised eyebrows in the business community about the possibility that OSHA intends to use its enforcement functions and the increased publicity to cite employers for alleged ergonomic hazards even though it lacks a specific federal standard on the issue.
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OSHA has opened an investigation, officials confirmed, after a California-based animal rights group filed a lengthy complaint against Miami Seaquarium citing the general duty clause and making allegations similar those OSHA cited against SeaWorld in a controversial exercise of the general duty clause that was recently upheld in court -- drawing immediate backlash from industry advocates who called out what they consider “abuse” of the broad-encompassing section of law and a slippery slope established by the SeaWorld case.
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A recent federal appeals court decision reinforces what experts say is the Labor Department's longstanding position, backed up in court, that OSHA should be given deference in interpreting its regulations if both OSHA and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) offer competing but reasonable interpretations of the standard in question -- though there may be outstanding constitutional questions about fair notice, and it remains unclear whether the employer plans to appeal the case further.
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The Obama administration is putting new pressure on Congress to increase OSHA penalties, leveraging a new federal interagency report on chemical safety and security to push in vague terms a highly controversial proposal earlier written into OSHA reform legislation, which gained tentative momentum early on in the Obama presidency but long since receded as a viable issue after Republicans seized control of the House in 2010.
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OSHA hopes to move forward with long-sought regulations to protect the safety and health of emergency responders -- including specifications for protective equipment -- by putting the issue back on its regulatory agenda in prerule stage and planning a stakeholder meeting next month to advance a proposed standard that was previously in the works, and that worker advocates contend is needed whether as a stand-alone rule or written into other standards.
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OSHA as part of a federal interagency working group says it would consider an array of measures to strengthen the safety and security of industrial plants in the wake of recent disasters, including pushing facilities to use inherently safer technologies (IST), though agencies continue to oppose a requirement sought by activists for the Environmental Protection Agency to mandate specific IST.
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Supporters of OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), which is designed to recognize exemplary workplace safety and health efforts, are touting remarks by OSHA chief David Michaels at a recent Senate hearing that VPP participants represent “the best of the best” among employers in actually exceeding agency mandates – comments they suggest show the program should garner continued support as a matter of policy.
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Health care worker advocates are deeply concerned about a caveat on respirator use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inserted into newly issued guidance to protect health employees from exposure to the emerging Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS) that has appeared in several spots in the United States, language they say gives health care employers a loophole to use face masks rather than NIOSH-certified respirators in environments of suspected MERS.
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A hot metal spray that affected eight workers recently at a Wisconsin employer whose top executive sharply criticized, during the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, the Obama administration and OSHA specifically for allegedly overreaching in regulatory oversight of his metal foundry could lead to political implications if OSHA later issues any citations and strongly publicizes the case as it has in many other instances, sources say.
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OSHA is forcefully pressing the issue of employer obligations to prevent worker falls in the construction sector, through a new iteration of its major initiative on the issue in which the agency sponsors a week-long national safety “stand-down” expected to involve tens of thousands of employers and more than 1 million workers at events to emphasize safety measures.
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NIOSH chief John Howard is calling for the entire occupational health community to embrace the agency's concept of “Total Worker Health” that stretches far beyond the boundaries of compliance with OSHA standards, saying immense coming changes in work force demographics dictate an economic need to protect workers and the advent of new technology necessitates dramatic changes to the industrial hygiene profession.
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A large contingent of organizations that strongly support funding for NIOSH – including for what they view as key education and agricultural, forestry and fishing programs – is exerting new pressure on congressional appropriators to reject the administration's proposal to cut back fiscal 2015 funding for the agency.
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