Congressional Democrats are backing a federal lawsuit by Amazon employees alleging that the online retailer failed to protect workers at a New York City warehouse from COVID-19 infections, setting up a test of companies’ duty to follow state safety mandates during the pandemic after OSHA declined to issue an emergency standard.
September 17, 2026
A federal appeals court has rejected trade unions’ bid to force OSHA to craft an emergency temporary standard to protect workers from COVID-19, holding that the agency’s decision to rely on existing rules and guidance deserves “considerable deference” because of the “unprecedented” nature of the current pandemic.
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EPA’s science advisors are deepening their concerns over the narrow scope of the agency’s draft evaluation of asbestos raising questions during a June 8 meeting on why EPA excluded consumer uses and all but chrysotile fiber types from its evaluation, as well as over EPA’s decision to evaluate legacy uses separately.
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OSHA is launching its next round of Susan Harwood Training Grants despite the Trump administration’s long-running efforts to defund the program, marking a win for defenders of the grants that support training and education for workers and employers on workplace safety and health hazards, responsibilities and rights.
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Critics of President Donald Trump’s latest deregulatory executive order (EO) are questioning whether it will drive significant new agency rollbacks without encountering major legal problems, though supporters are highlighting another aspect that imposes a series of principles designed to ensure “fairness” in enforcement actions.
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EPA science advisors are unable to agree on whether the agency appropriately chose to base its analysis of the risks of the common solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) on the chemical’s adverse immune system effects rather than its historical -- and more conservative -- focus on fetal heart defects.
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Industry groups are clashing with labor and health organizations over how Cal/OSHA should revise its proposed permanent rules for protecting outdoor workers from wildfire smoke, with both sides citing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in their calls to either relax or tighten certain provisions of the regulations.
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The AFL-CIO is defending its suit aiming to force OSHA to craft an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for protecting workers from COVID-19 infection, arguing that the agency’s preferred strategy that combines non-binding guidance with pre-existing authorities like the general duty clause “stands the OSH Act on its head."
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected a suit challenging OSHA’s past decisions that extended existing safety standards to new industry sectors without formal rulemaking, issuing a ruling that upholds the agency’s worker eye-washing requirements for construction sites.
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OSHA and industry groups are urging federal appellate judges to reject the AFL-CIO’s suit seeking a short deadline for the agency to issue an emergency temporary standard (ETS) protecting workers from COVID-19, arguing that existing rules already provide enforceable standards for employers to prevent workplace infections.
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OSHA’s newly issued alert outlining steps employers can take to encourage social distancing in the workplace, including maintaining space between workers and isolating sick employees, could preview the agency’s forthcoming guidance for how businesses can safely reopen under loosened state pandemic orders.
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Lawmakers at a May 28 House hearing on the Trump administration’s coronavirus response sparred over whether OSHA needs to craft an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for protecting workers from infections, previewing arguments that could arise in labor unions’ pending lawsuit to force issuance of an ETS.
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Industry attorneys are predicting that employers will face major difficulties implementing OSHA’s new guidance on when their employees’ COVID-19 infections qualify as work-related and thus subject to reporting requirements, with one law firm calling the policy a “disappointing” shift from the agency’s prior stance.
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Former Obama OSHA chief David Michaels says that with little chance of OSHA issuing binding rules on how to protect workers from COVID-19, employers should develop safeguards collaboratively with their workers to ensure full participation in those measures.
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Appellate judges at recent oral argument in a closely watched case over the scope of OSHA’s process safety management (PSM) standard gave little indication of how they plan to rule, as members of the three-judge panel all appeared to wrestle with several aspects of the highly complicated case.
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President Donald Trump is ordering OSHA and other agencies to launch a new deregulatory push to help drive an economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic, issuing an executive order that urges agency heads to scale back existing rules, make permanent temporary waivers, and take other steps that may bolster employment and recovery.
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OSHA is vowing to increase in-person inspections as states move to loosen restrictions on business operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, replacing its interim guidance on investigating claims of workplace violations related to the disease with a plan to ramp up its enforcement actions as local conditions allow.
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The AFL-CIO is seeking a court order for OSHA to swiftly craft an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for protecting workers from COVID-19 infections, arguing that the agency’s decision to rely on non-binding guidance and existing rules rather than crafting a new coronavirus policy is an “abdication of statutory responsibility.”
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House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) says a just-released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that calls for strengthening cybersecurity protocols in a federal chemical facility safety program underscore what he says is a need to reauthorize an enhanced versions of the program.
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A senior EPA toxics official says the agency is preparing to issue in the next month a series of unilateral orders against some submitters of new chemical use notifications, though the official says the moves will be done carefully to target unresponsive companies in a way that is being supported by industry.
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