The California Chamber of Commerce is leading a push for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration to intervene in a Cal/OSHA policy that would mandate companies to equip employees with N95 respirator masks to protect against wildfire smoke, saying it might be impossible to comply because of mask shortages due to COVID-19.
Amazon is touting a California state court ruling that dismissed a worker’s claims that the online retailer has adopted unlawfully lax workplace COVID-19 protections in a bid to fight a similar suit in federal court, arguing that federal judges should follow the same logic and defer to OSHA’s enforcement and rulemaking discretion.
OSHA has signed an “alliance” with the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), which represents meat and turkey processors, aiming to reduce COVID-19 exposure risks for employees in meatpacking facilities -- the latest step in the agency’s approach to issuing sector-specific, non-binding guides in lieu of binding standards for the pandemic.
Attorneys representing employers say OSHA is actively tracking workplaces’ compliance with COVID-19 guides crafted by the agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warning that even though the documents are formally non-binding, employers who ignore them risk an OSHA enforcement action.
California’s OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards board staff is recommending that the board deny a recent petition from labor groups to adopt a COVID-19-specific emergency temporary standard (ETS) to further protect employees from the virus, concluding that enforcement of comprehensive existing regulations is the best path forward.
OSHA has updated its COVID-19 guidance to employers by adding a provision urging mandatory cloth face coverings for workers as a “source control” measure to protect against exposure to the virus, saying studies have shown the coverings to be effective at containing the spread of the coronavirus.
The halt in Congress’ negotiations over a coronavirus response bill means supporters of either a legislative mandate for either OSHA issuing a standard for worker COVID-19 protections or employer virus liability waivers are unlikely to quickly see progress at the federal level, turning focus to states’ rules addressing the pandemic.
OSHA is asking a federal district court to reject a lawsuit that seeks to mandate enforcement action against a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant over fears about inadequate worker protections against COVID-19, arguing that the workers have not met the OSH Act’s “high bar” to override regulators’ enforcement discretion.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected the AFL-CIO’s bid for rehearing in its suit aiming to force OSHA to craft a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), shifting focus from the case back to Congress’ negotiations over potentially mandating a virus standard in the next pandemic response bill.
An official with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) says the state’s novel emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 that could be a model for other states focuses largely on mandatory infection control plans for all workplaces that carry at least a “medium” infection risk.