OSHA faces pressure from labor groups to revise its Field Operations Manual, the guide compliance officers use during inspections, to clearly set out enforcement policies regarding safety and health protections for temporary workers, who are seen as generally more vulnerable than direct hires, often due to insufficient training.
September 17, 2026
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a bill at the close of the state's legislative session that would have required employers to abate certain types of alleged hazards identified in Cal/OSHA workplace inspections even if an appeal of the citation was under way -- rejecting on procedural grounds a policy that also is a pillar of federal OSHA reforms advocated by Democrats and unions.
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A priority for worker health advocates is eventually getting Congress to pass legislation that would bring OSHA's permissible exposure limits (PELs) for industrial chemicals in line with the most up-to-date science, a top union official tells Inside OSHA Online.
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OSHA's new push for industries to find “safer” alternatives to hazardous chemicals -- rather than relying solely on the agency's permissible exposure limits (PELs), considered outdated in many cases, to reduce hazards -- signals an aggressive shift in approach, experts say.
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OSHA has agreed to extend until Jan. 27, 2014, the public comment period on its proposed crystalline silica rule, agreeing to industry and GOP lawmakers' demands for a lengthier review.
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OSHA launched a high-profile effort Thursday (Oct. 24) to push employers to consider a sweeping set of occupational exposure levels (OELs) -- published in newly developed tables on its website -- for dangerous chemicals based on recommendations from NIOSH, exposure levels developed by a group of government industrial hygienists, and permissible exposure limits (PELs) enforced in California that are more stringent than federal standards.
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California lawmakers enacted a bill requiring Cal/OSHA to adopt rules addressing the potential workplace hazards from handling chemotherapy drugs, making the Golden State the latest to tackle the longstanding concern in the health sector's labor community.
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A pro-industry leaning think tank came out with a report Thursday (Oct. 17) showing that the White House budget office's resources have not kept pace with its growing regulatory load, despite progressive complaints that the shop's regulatory review organ over the years has developed an outsize role in determining the feasibility of regulations, such as OSHA's hotly contested proposal to reduce silica exposures.
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A new California law could help state authorities enforce measures designed to prevent worker heat illness by adding a provision to the books requiring employers to fork over an extra hour of pay if they do not provide rest breaks during a work day for certain employees.
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A Washington pro-regulatory non-profit praises OSHA for offering an alternative way to look at the silica rule's impact on small businesses that encompasses employers with fewer than 20 workers, as industry clings onto the Small Business Administration's (SBA) much broader definition of small entities.
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Two key House Republicans who oversee worker safety and health issues are urging Labor Secretary Tom Perez, in a letter obtained by Inside OSHA Online, to extend by 90 days the official comment period on OSHA's recently unveiled regulatory plan to reduce crystalline silica hazards.
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The building sector argues that the size of the scientific and analytical record that OSHA has amassed to back up the need for control measures in its proposed rule to cut crystalline silica exposures is so huge that it will take much longer than the current 90-day comment period to evaluate and offer feedback on the plan.
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Worker safety and environmental advocates in New Jersey are voicing deep concerns about the effectiveness of the state government's rollout of rules intended to require so-called “inherently safer technology” (IST) in chemical plants across the densely populated state, echoing calls at the federal level for rules mandating employers seek alternatives to cut the risks involved in chemicals and processes currently in use.
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OSHA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Homeland Security are working toward a formal partnership in which data would be shared among the agencies regarding chemical plant safety and security, OSHA chief David Michaels recently said.
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OSHA appears to be ratcheting up its criminal enforcement efforts by attempting to refer more egregious cases to federal prosecutors, sources say, pointing to a recently reached deferred prosecution and civil settlement with a company that OSHA terms a “severe violator” as emblematic of the agency's increasingly aggressive posture.
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Political leaders in both parties made emphatic statements that more effective data sharing among OSHA and other federal agencies -- especially the Environmental Protection Agency -- could help head off chemical releases and explosions stemming from inadequate plant safety measures.
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OSHA has cited the fertilizer company in West, TX, where a disastrous fire and explosion occurred in April with 24 “serious” safety violations centered around the company's storage and handling of two hazardous chemicals, ammonium nitrate and anhydrous ammonia -- though it was unclear Thursday (Oct. 10) whether any of the alleged violations center on the process safety management (PSM) standards.
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The federal government shutdown means the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) cannot deploy investigators to the site of any industrial catastrophe that may occur during the lapse in funding, and the board has effectively halted one of its major probes, involving the recent fertilizer plant explosion in West, TX, the agency's top official said Tuesday (Oct. 8).
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Federal OSHA and the Hawaii state government have agreed under an operating plan for the state OSHA program to allow the state's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) to re-assume coverage of Hawaii manufacturing industries, in what could signal an early, tentative step toward getting the state plan out from under concurrent OSH jurisdiction with the feds.
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Injuries among health care workers are among the highest of any profession, according to a new comprehensive study of the issue published by a group of workplace safety engineers -- a finding that could bolster OSHA's recent efforts to focus attention on the issue and back up worker advocates' concerns that not enough is being done under the OSH Act to protect health care employees.
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