A New Jersey steel company is seeking to preserve its suit raising a series of constitutional and statutory claims against the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), urging a federal court to reject the Labor Department’s (DOL) motion to dismiss, charging the government’s arguments are “meritless.”
Environmentalists and industry groups are raising concerns about how EPA estimated risk to workers from phthalates in technical documents that will support a novel cumulative risk assessment of the chemicals, alleging that methodological deficiencies resulted in assessments that either understated or overstated risk.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a fiscal year 2026 funding bill that maintains level funding for OSHA and other federal worker-protection agencies, rejecting the Trump administration’s bid to slash funding for the agencies and drawing praise from occupational safety advocates.
Public health officials, labor unions and the construction industry are among numerous stakeholder groups asking OSHA for additional time to comment on a package of deregulatory proposals, with some targeting only a couple of the proposed rules and others seeking more time to review nearly all of the 24 regulations.
Worker-safety advocacy organizations are warning members of California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board that employees in the state -- especially agricultural laborers -- are likely to suffer from increased injuries and illnesses as a result of raids on employer operations by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
EPA has opened a new public comment period on a Biden-era TSCA risk management rule for the common solvent perchloroethylene (PCE or perc), seeking especially for information on whether workplace controls could reduce exposure to the chemical rather than outright prohibition of its use.
The chairman and several other Republican members of the House Education and Workforce Committee are urging the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to relax the Biden-era silica dust rule in order “to prevent serious economic hardship.”
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has agreed to extend by 30 days the comment period for five of 18 rules it recently proposed, although stakeholders have asked for a 60-day extension for all the rules and noted the challenge of providing meaningful comments on so many proposals at the same time.
The 5th Circuit has rejected arguments from a poultry company that OSHA erred in issuing citations for machine-guarding and safety signage violations, finding no reason to set aside an administrative law judge’s determinations that the citations were in order.
The California State Auditor is finding major problems and deficiencies with the state OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) inspection and enforcement efforts, including closing complaints and accident reports without conducting on-site inspections, carrying out inadequate inspections, failing to ensure problems are fixed, and assessing inadequate fines.
The Labor Department (DOL) is touting new and expanded programs aimed at helping employers improve their compliance with federal health and safety laws, saying these self-audit programs aim to enhance worker protections while reducing the likelihood of formal investigations or litigation.
Attorneys are urging employers to closely examine the state of machine guarding in their facilities and thoroughly evaluate their lockout/tagout (LOTO) programs ahead of any potential OSHA inspection under a renewed emphasis program focused on preventing amputations in manufacturing workplaces.
A federal district court judge has rejected for the second time South Carolina’s attempt to prevent OSHA from requiring states to match annual increases to federal minimum and maximum OSH Act penalties, agreeing with the agency that the state failed to provide a viable claim and that some claims were time-barred.
The Labor Department (DOL) is urging a federal district court to dismiss a New Jersey steel company’s lawsuit raising a series of constitutional and statutory claims against the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), arguing none have merit.
Republicans on a House appropriations panel have advanced to the full committee a funding bill for EPA and related agencies that funds the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) despite the Trump administration’s proposal to zero it out.
House and Senate Democrats have introduced legislation seeking to force OSHA to issue a federal heat injury and illness standard and to explicitly authorize the agency to update the standard as technology improves or heat-related hazards worsen.
Republican House lawmakers used a July 16 hearing to tout OSHA’s long-standing Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) and highlight renewed efforts to codify VPP, while Democrats emphasized the need for continued enforcement of mandatory rules and decried the Trump administration’s deregulatory focus.
OSHA’s announcement of significant changes to its enforcement policy that expand the scope of employers eligible for penalty reductions is drawing mixed reactions, with employer attorneys noting it is one of the most employer-friendly shifts in recent years while labor advocates are warning of more injuries, illnesses and deaths.
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) is seeking an additional 60 days to review 17 regulatory proposals the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) published in the Federal Register earlier this month, saying the agency’s 30-day comment period is not enough time to provide meaningful input.
Employer-focused attorneys are ramping up warnings about the potential impacts to companies that will be required to comply with California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) legislatively mandated expansion of workplace violence-prevention rules, a draft of which is being scrutinized ahead of a July 14 comment period deadline.