The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit is backing OSHA’s narrow reading of a little-used provision in the OSH Act allowing workers to sue the agency when it fails to address an “imminent danger” of workplace harm, agreeing that such suits face the same six-month statute of limitations as federal enforcement action under the law.
OSHA is instructing regional enforcement officers to avoid grouping together employers’ alleged health and safety violations and instead prioritize “instance-by-instance” citations that could lead to greatly increased overall penalties, loosening a long-standing policy that said such citations should only come in response to “clear bad faith” by an employer.
Industry attorneys say an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) case where the panel underlined the “creating employer” test for liability at multi-employer worksites could also showcase the limits of that doctrine for OSHA enforcement, especially the need to prove that the company had knowledge of the danger it allegedly created.
OSHA is urging a federal appeals court to reject an employer’s arguments that the OSH Act’s safety standard program is unconstitutional under the “non-delegation” doctrine, arguing that both the law itself and Supreme Court precedent establish well-defined limits on that authority.
OSHA is citing Amazon over a wide range of alleged safety violations at three of the retailer’s warehouses in Florida, Illinois and New York, marking the latest step in an investigation prompted by rare referrals from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the agency.
OSHA is raising its minimum and maximum penalties for OSH Act violations by 7.7 percent to account for inflation, an even larger hike than the prior year and one the agency is again ordering states to adopt in their own work-safety programs even as it awaits a federal judge’s ruling in litigation over whether that mandate is lawful.
OSHA has posted online a new batch of regulatory interpretation letters for the first time in more than six months, offering answers to employers’ questions for clarification on exit signage requirements, fall protections for certain cranes, and compliance with lockout/tagout standards during pipeline repair.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has set oral argument for early March in a construction firm’s clash with OSHA over the agency’s safety standards for crane assembly and disassembly, teeing up arguments on whether those requirements “clearly” apply to preparatory work as the agency says, and how to read any ambiguity in the rule.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is pressing OSHA to step up enforcement on traumatic injuries after the Labor Department’s (DOL) annual report on worker deaths from sudden trauma for 2021 found an 8.9 percent increase from the prior year -- a rise the group says should be “unacceptably high” for the agency.
OSHA is citing Amazon for 14 alleged recordkeeping and reporting violations as part of its high-profile investigation into reported safety issues at the retail giant’s warehouses -- the first public action it has taken since the Justice Department (DOJ) became involved in the inquiry, which the agency says is “ongoing” and could produce more citations.