Employers’ attorneys are alerting their clients that OSHA is drafting guidance on monkeypox virus (MPV) workplace safety and could release it as soon as early September, even while reiterating that the OSH Act’s General Duty clause requires workplaces to be “free from recognized serious health hazards” like MPV even without specific guides.
Two groups representing employers and industry are laying out detailed objections to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) proposed workplace violence standard for “all industries,” including over a perceived lack of input from law enforcement, incident-logging requirements, employee privacy, enforcement and definitions of key terms -- including violence.
OSHA is seeking nominees to fill four seats on its National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) that are slated to become vacant in January, just as the panel is ramping up its work to provide the agency with advice on a heat danger standard long sought by labor advocates and Democrats.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board plans to address concerns among board members, employers and others about “ambiguous” definitions in the agency’s draft long-term COVID-19 worker-safety regulation -- primarily what will be considered a “close contact” in “shared indoor airspace” -- even after officials released new guidance on the subject.
OSHA chief Doug Parker told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a sworn July 25 declaration that his agency is “on track” to complete a long-term COVID-19 standard for healthcare workers by September or October, despite Labor Secretary Marty Walsh’s recent comments that the rule could take as long as five months.
Environmental health experts at a recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) meeting said extensive new research is needed to identify the full range of workers exposed to toxic per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), based on newer studies suggesting exposure even for those who may not knowingly handle the chemicals directly.
The Biden administration is highlighting early inspection figures from OSHA’s first-time National Emphasis Program (NEP) on heat danger as part of a broader push to showcase its climate policies amid a worldwide heat wave and the failure of Senate negotiations over clean-energy measures in a reconciliation spending bill.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has released a handbook of workplace safety “best practices” for companies that employ temporary workers (TWs) hired through staffing firms, building on joint recommendations it issued with OSHA in 2014 and calling on employers to go “beyond compliance” in order to protect TWs.
The coalition of unions suing OSHA to revive its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the healthcare sector say the agency’s self-imposed timeline for a permanent rule appears at risk of slipping by as much as two months, citing comments by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh during a Senate appropriations hearing.
Labor union representatives are attacking California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) proposal to remove “exclusion pay” requirements from its proposed long-term COVID-19 worker-safety regulation, saying that if the state drops its existing requirement to pay infected workers for time away from their duties many will come to work sick and further spread the virus.