OSHA Dec. 21 allowed its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare workers to expire, spurring criticism from healthcare and workers’ rights advocates and calls for the agency to “expeditiously” issue a permanent standard to protect frontline medical workers amid a fresh spike in cases from the Omicron variant.
OSHA plans to start enforcing its COVID-19 vaccination emergency temporary standard (ETS) on Jan. 10, with employer vaccine policies to take effect Feb. 9 -- provided employers make “good faith efforts” to comply -- after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit voted 2-1 to dissolve an earlier order staying the rule.
The California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has readopted -- and strengthened -- a controversial COVID-19 worker-safety emergency temporary standard (ETS) through next April, even as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) authorized the board to continue the standard through the end of 2022 while officials continue to work on a permanent standard.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has denied petitions for initial en banc review of the consolidated challenges to OSHA’s vaccine emergency temporary standard (ETS), opening the field of judges who could potentially serve on a three-judge panel to decide whether to lift an injunction blocking the standard’s adoption.
Worker-safety advocates are urging OSHA to promulgate a disaster-response standard to ensure that employers are prepared for extreme weather-related events, in the aftermath of recent tornados that leveled workplaces across the Midwest and killed at least six workers at an Illinois Amazon warehouse and eight at a Kentucky candle factory.
The Senate voted Dec. 7 to approve a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would nullify OSHA’s emergency COVID-19 vaccination rule with two Democrats joining the chamber’s Republicans to back it, marking a symbolic win for the GOP even though it faces long odds in the House and a certain veto if it does pass there.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is backing a Republican-led effort to repeal OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccines, all but guaranteeing it will pass the 50-50 Senate while House Republicans are hoping to secure support from Democratic moderates that would allow them to force a vote in the lower chamber.
The Biden administration is expanding its efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19 following the emergence of the novel and potentially immunity-avoiding “Omicron” variant, including a fresh push for employers to adopt vaccination-or-test requirements even after a court stayed OSHA’s rule that would make that policy mandatory.
A group of congressional Republicans is threatening to block a stop-gap government funding bill unless it blocks OSHA’s and other agencies’ COVID-19 vaccine policies, potentially undermining a newly announced bipartisan spending agreement and all but guaranteeing another clash on the subject at the next deadline.
OSHA is extending by 45 days the deadline for public comment on its COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS), as stakeholders await a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on whether it will lift an injunction blocking the rule’s implementation.