A bipartisan group of senators that has been seeking to negotiate a compromise COVID-19 relief bill has failed to find common ground on combining funding provisions with employer liability relief and OSHA enforcement, and has split the workplace issues into a separate measure that employee safety advocates strongly oppose.
Employers’ attorneys expect the Biden OSHA to step up a long list of enforcement activities, including conducting more inspections, filing more claims of “egregious” safety violations, seeking higher penalties and invoking the multi-employer doctrine more frequently, alongside a binding COVID-19 standard and other new rules.
Workers at a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant suing OSHA to force enforcement action over alleged COVID-19 hazards are attacking the agency’s formal decision not to cite the facility, arguing that the Trump administration is ignoring its own guidance to employers and allowing them to impose unsafe working conditions without penalty.
Virginia is readying a permanent version of its first-in-the-nation COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that will apply to a range of infectious diseases rather than only the current pandemic -- potentially providing a model for the Biden OSHA if it follows a similar rulemaking track.
Amazon workers are appealing a federal district judge’s decision that said courts should defer to OSHA on workplace standards for COVID-19 even when states have their own policies in place that establish broader infection-control mandates for the pandemic, setting up a novel appellate hearing on the subject.
The California Chamber of Commerce is advising employers to be aware of several new COVID-19 worker safety laws that will take effect in the state on Jan. 1, including sweeping legislation that mandates companies issue varying notices and carry out other responses for workplace COVID-19 infections.
OSHA is standing behind its refusal to classify cloth face coverings as personal protective equipment (PPE) subject to the same standards as medical gowns, respirators and other protective gear for workers, but is leaving the door open to reconsidering that decision if future research warrants it.
House and Senate Democrats say a bipartisan plan for short-term COVID-19 economic relief that includes a temporary federal liability waiver for employers against coronavirus-related lawsuits could help restart talks with the GOP, but the bill’s fate is in doubt as the White House and Senate Republican leadership are resisting the effort.
California employers and their attorneys are looking to a pending advisory panel to secure eased mandates in an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect workers from COVID-19 recently adopted by the state’s OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards board, arguing that numerous provisions appear impossible to comply with and potentially illegal.
President-elect Joe Biden has named Obama-era OSHA chief David Michaels to his COVID-19 task force, drawing praise from labor and worker safety groups that say Michaels’ appointment shows that the new administration will focus on workplace protections in its pandemic response.