Petroleum refiners and chemical manufacturers are urging OSHA to ease compliance in a pending proposal to amend 2016 updates to the agency’s fall-protection requirements, asking OSHA to either repeal requirements for personal fall protection systems or grandfather in the use of cages or wells on existing fixed ladders.
A federal district court in West Virginia has stayed a challenge by a pair of coal miners to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) layoffs of most of the staff at a key worker-safety agency last year, after the miners and HHS jointly asked for a pause in the litigation because HHS has now rescinded all the layoff notices.
Employer and industry groups are pressing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to scale back certain provisions of a long-overdue rule to update the agency’s first-aid kit requirements for general industry and construction companies, including requirements for additional protections for unique hazards and a new 3-4-minute time limit for employees to access kits.
The AFL-CIO is urging key members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to reject a Republican draft discussion bill aimed at making numerous industry-requested changes to TSCA, arguing the legislation as written “would put American workers, their children, spouses and neighbors in danger.”
The House has approved a fiscal year 2026 spending bill that includes funds for OSHA and other worker-safety agencies at levels roughly the same as FY25, after House and Senate appropriators reached a deal on funding for several federal departments that rejects President Trump’s efforts to cut or nearly eliminate worker-protection funding.
EPA is poised to release its proposal scaling back the Biden administration’s Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, a measure that will spark heated debate as environmentalists charge the measure guts crucial protections from industrial incidents while industry groups say it is needed to end the “regulatory whiplash” that characterizes the policy.
The Labor Department (DOL) is urging the D.C. Circuit to uphold an OSHA citation against a Louisiana-based oil and gas drilling specialty contractor, arguing an administrative law judge (ALJ) correctly found the company exposed its employees to a hazard when a pipe ruptured at a gas well in south Texas in 2022.
House Judiciary Committee Republicans are championing legislation that would prohibit lawsuits against manufacturers and sellers of artificial stone slabs for injuries caused by exposure to respirable silica during third-party fabrication, arguing hundreds of lawsuits in California courts are threatening to put American companies out of business.
EPA has withdrawn a direct final rule (DFR) meant to conform hazardous chemical inventory reporting regulations under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) with OSHA Hazard Communication System (HCS) standards that were updated in 2024.
The International Surface Fabricators Association (ISFA) is proposing to develop a nationwide program to certify and license shops that cut fabricated stone containing crystalline silica to ensure the practice is performed safely and prevents the lung disease silicosis, countering advocacy groups in California that are seeking a total ban on the products.
OSHA is extending by four months compliance deadlines in its revised hazardous communications standard (HCS) because officials are still crafting guidance for both the regulated community and agency personnel, a move that is drawing praise from chemical distributors that have been pressing for the pending guidance.
OSHA is urging the 4th Circuit to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of South Carolina’s challenge to the agency’s requirement that states match annual increases to federal minimum and maximum OSH Act penalties, arguing the state missed the deadline to file its suit.
OSHA has corrected “several inadvertent errors” in its 2024 hazard communication standard (HCS) that it identified following a previous technical amendment to the rule, including minor errors in the regulatory text as well as appendices to the standard.
The 6th Circuit in an unpublished opinion has remanded to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) two contested items of an OSHA citation against a paper company after finding an administrative law judge (ALJ) failed to cite adequate evidence to support her conclusions that OSHA correctly issued the citations.
A panel of three 5th Circuit judges appeared skeptical during Jan. 8 oral argument of the Labor Department’s (DOL) position that OSHA properly cited ExxonMobil for violations of reporting requirements when the company failed to record the mental health diagnosis of an employee following a December 2021 explosion and fire.
Congressional appropriators in newly released report language are directing EPA’s TSCA program to revise its standing memorandum of understanding (MOU) with OSHA to better clarify how the agencies coordinate on EPA’s workplace analyses and rules and for EPA to be more transparent in its TSCA new chemical reviews.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is advancing this year high-profile worker-protection rules that are drawing close scrutiny from employer and employee advocacy groups, including legislatively required measures to prevent workplace violence, heat illness and harms from wildfire smoke.
A recent decision from an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission administrative law judge (ALJ) that vacated citations against a company operating a marine terminal in North Carolina provides additional clarity on statute of limitations arguments, even though the citations were overturned on other grounds, legal experts say.
A new survey conducted by the National Safety Council (NSC) has found a strong connection between Long COVID symptoms and workplace injuries, prompting the organization to outline ways of mitigating the risks associated with the condition that can increase harms to workers.
A landmark agreement between labor unions and a paint manufacturer over Biden-era TSCA worker protection requirements for using trichloroethylene (TCE) is facing a potential challenge from EPA, which is pressing an appellate court to give it a chance to oppose the deal, which the agency says would require the court to set a new standard.