OSHA is finalizing its rule to “clarify” key elements of the 2017 general-industry exposure standards for beryllium including a new definition of “work areas” that won support from unions as a way to ease compliance with the standards and thus bolster worker protections, even as litigation over the underlying policy continues.
September 17, 2026
Labor unions say the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) rule allowing swine slaughterhouses to raise line-speed limits regardless of worker safety impacts must be vacated, citing a recent Supreme Court decision they say shows that the agency’s refusal to consider safety data in the rulemaking is too fundamental a flaw to fix on remand.
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Amazon.com employees say a federal district court can hear their suit seeking COVID-19 employee safeguards at a New York warehouse despite OSHA’s general authority over workplace safety, arguing that the agency’s “minimal steps” to address the pandemic give courts more room to act.
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Amazon.com is asking a federal district court to reject a suit over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as an infringement on OSHA’s “primary jurisdiction” over workplace safety issues, arguing that allowing lawsuits to enforce state-level coronavirus policies would create “an inconsistent patchwork” of contradictory judicial orders.
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House Democrats’ fiscal year 2021 funding bill for the Department of Labor would boost OSHA’s budget by $12 million from current levels, rejecting President Donald Trump’s requested cuts while maintaining a training grant program that the administration is seeking to end despite OSHA touting the grants as “success stories.”
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is voicing support for another COVID-19 stimulus measure in response to the nationwide rise in infections, teeing up a battle over employer liability waivers that he says will be a GOP requirement in any pandemic bill but which Democrats and labor groups have opposed just as strongly.
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OSHA’s newly updated Unified Agenda of pending rulemaking actions adds only a few new items to its docket while delaying a host of previously planned proposals and final rules to summer or later, sparking fresh criticism from safety advocates who say the agency has slowed its regulatory work to a crawl.
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The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is fighting labor unions’ argument that an Inspector General critique of USDA worker safety data undermines its contested rule allowing some slaughterhouses to increase line speeds, countering that the “preliminary” data has “no bearing on the validity of the Final Rule.”
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OSHA is warning offshore fish-processing facilities to be prepared to quarantine workers who develop COVID-19 infections and to make plans for their safe transport back to shore, in the agency’s latest sector-specific virus guidance that highlights the challenges facing industries that depend on self-contained facilities.
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Industry attorneys are largely welcoming a long-awaited IRS plan allowing companies to deduct from their federal taxes fines and penalties paid to the government under consent decrees, such as those resolving health, safety, and environmental enforcement actions.
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The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking remand from a federal district court to reconsider its rule allowing higher line speeds at some swine slaughterhouses after a judge faulted its consideration of worker safety risks, but labor groups challenging the policy oppose the reconsideration and say it would be a sham.
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Citing OSHA’s refusal to develop an employer safety standard to protect against COVID-19 infections, Virginia’s health department is moving forward with the country’s first workplace rule to prevent or reduce infections in the workplace that could be a model for other states to use.
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Employment lawyers expect an “explosion” of lawsuits over workplace exposures to COVID-19 in the coming months and are warning employers to closely follow guidance from OSHA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies to either avoid such complaints or provide solid defenses against them.
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A newly published study finds public accusations against employers that violate OSHA standards are significantly more effective at boosting compliance than the agency’s facility inspections alone, not only at those workplaces but also at nearby competitors, concluding that “regulation by shaming” should be a top priority for OSHA.
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The Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), a think tank that advocates for “robust” health and safety rules, is floating an aggressive agenda for federal agencies and Congress to protect workers from COVID-19, including issuance of an emergency OSHA standard to prevent infections that the agency is refusing to issue.
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The AFL-CIO is asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review a three-judge panel’s decision rejecting its bid to force OSHA to craft an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the panel judges “wholly failed to consider” several issues in their two-page ruling.
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Chemical industry groups and other sectors are looking to Congress to reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) chemical facility safety program before its looming July 23 expiration, although one industry source says it is unlikely that a reauthorization bill would include any proposed policy revisions to the program.
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OSHA is ramping up release of several new guidance documents to aid employers in preventing COVID-19 infections as they reopen following states’ relaxation of limits on in-person gatherings and businesses, adding to the agency’s approach of using non-binding guides rather than binding rules to target the virus.
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Legal firms are warning California employers that they could be targeted with tort litigation by workers who claim they contracted COVID-19 as a result of a company’s failure to properly carry out Cal/OSHA safety rules for the virus -- a potentially much greater financial risk for firms than an increase in worker compensation claims.
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Democrats and pro-regulatory group Public Citizen are opposing Republicans’ push to waive liability for employers whose workers contract COVID-19 on the job, signaling what could be an intense political battle ahead as the Senate GOP has said the waivers will be a top priority for any future COVID-19 relief bill.
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