Michigan has enacted the second binding set of state-issued workplace standards in the United States for COVID-19 after the state’s high court struck down Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) executive orders aimed at curbing the pandemic, with the new rule setting broad mandates for employers as well as sector-specific requirements.
An attorney for labor unions suing over the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) line speed waiver program for swine slaughterhouses says the judge hearing the case appears poised to find that the rule is unlawful, but is giving no indication of whether she would vacate the policy or allow it to stay in force during a remand.
The California Chamber of Commerce is warning its members the state’s newly enacted law mandating notices and other responses to workplace COVID-19 infections will be onerous and confusing to implement, while revealing that “cleanup” legislation is in the works to address what the group says are some of its most problematic provisions.
Speakers at an Oct. 13 OSHA stakeholder meeting on its whistleblower program urged the agency to bolster outreach to employers and workers alike on how it operates, rework several of its rules on the subject and bolster its resources as complaints related to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to swell.
Top Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee are attacking OSHA’s recent guidance on reporting worker hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 as a move to “eliminate, for all practical purposes” mandatory reporting of workplace infections, and demanding details on how the agency crafted the policy.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking a federal district court to dismiss a suit from unions and a worker-safety group over its program that allows some poultry slaughterhouses to increase line speeds, arguing that they have shown no proof the higher speeds pose a “substantial” risk to workers.
California lawmakers are urging the state OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to speed up its investigations of potential COVID-19 workplace safety violations, and to focus its efforts on the highly vulnerable sectors of health care, food processing, agriculture and warehousing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new guidance finding potential for COVID-19 to spread through the air -- separate from the short-range droplets believed to be the virus’ primary mode of travel -- could force employers to update their infection-control measures in order to comply with OSHA standards.
The collapse of bipartisan talks on COVID-19 relief and President Donald Trump’s vow not to field any new offers until after the election all but kills GOP plans to insert employee liability waivers in the bill and Democrats’ hopes of using the legislation as a vehicle to force OSHA to issue an emergency virus safety standard.
OSHA is promising “enforcement discretion” to employers who cannot perform otherwise mandatory fit tests on powered respirators because of ongoing test equipment shortages, as long as the businesses make “good-faith efforts” to obtain the required supplies and reduce workers’ need to use respiratory protection gear.
OSHA has announced citations against an additional 28 employers for violations related to the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating its pace of enforcement -- especially against health care and nursing home facilities -- amid accusations that the agency is not doing enough to address workplace exposures to the disease.
OSHA has narrowed its guidance on when employers must report COVID-19 hospitalizations to the agency as “work-related,” setting a requirement that a case is only reportable when it comes within 24 hours of a workplace exposure to the virus despite the disease’s long incubation time that means infections take a week or more to manifest.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s (OSHRC) third unanimous decision in less than a week rejecting an OSHA fine for employers’ alleged failure to install safety equipment is drawing a warm welcome from employer attorneys, with one calling it evidence of a “trend” toward scrutiny of agency enforcement decisions.
Oregon has released an updated draft of its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that extends to all employers the requirement to craft exposure risk assessments for the virus but removes mandatory paid leave for workers subject to medical quarantine orders, among other changes to the rule slated to take effect Oct. 12.
Democrats have unveiled a scaled-back version of their COVID-19 relief package in what could be their final effort to restart negotiations with the White House ahead of the November elections, but even the more limited bill maintains the demand for an OSHA standard to address the virus, potentially dooming it in the Senate.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is citing more health care and other facilities for allegedly not protecting employees from COVID-19, most recently acting against six hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and a police department with more than $100,000 in proposed fines.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has for the second time in a matter of days struck down an OSHA citation for an industrial accident because the agency failed to prove that a worker’s risky behavior was part of “normal operation” for the facility, underscoring the potentially high bar to make that showing.
Critics of Virginia’s first-in-the-nation emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 are challenging the policy in court, arguing that it infringes on a host of constitutional rights and that the state bypassed its own rulemaking procedures to enact the policy.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) in a new decision has vacated an OSHA citation for crushing hazards at an Air Force contractor’s on-base metal shop, holding that the agency failed to show that protections at the site were lacking based on whether an accident was “reasonably predictable.”
OSHA has settled its enforcement case against a Colorado contracting firm over a 2018 falling accident that left a worker with a traumatic brain injury, averting any decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) on the scope of worksite inspection or training requirements.