The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is weighing OSHA’s leeway to amend claims in its enforcement citations during the administrative appeal process, as an Ohio employer seeks to overturn a citation for a 2018 crane accident where it says a mid-litigation revision deprived it of “fair notice” of the agency’s allegations.
September 17, 2026
A new report from the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) harshly criticizes OSHA’s enforcement work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, charging that it “did not sufficiently protect workers from COVID-19 health hazards” and floating five recommendations for policy fixes to address those failures.
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OSHA is again attacking South Carolina’s lawsuit targeting the requirement for OSH Act state plans to match the federal agency’s maximum penalty amounts, arguing ahead of a Nov. 16 hearing that the state’s arguments against that mandate are untethered from the “four corners” of its case and thus should be summarily rejected.
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OSHA is ordering ExxonMobil to reinstate two former employees who the agency says were illegally fired in retaliation for potentially leaking information to the press, and to pay them over $800,000 in back wages, compensatory damages and interest, in its second high-profile whistleblower enforcement action of recent months.
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A Texas construction firm is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to narrow OSHA’s reading of its safety standard for assembling or disassembling cranes and other large equipment, arguing in a new brief that the agency was wrong to cite it under that rule for an accident involving preparatory steps before the disassembly process.
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A federal appeals court has overturned a 2020 Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) decision that took a narrow reading of OSHA’s safety standard for goods “stored in tiers,” holding that Walmart violated the rule in a 2017 accident even though the items in question were held in shelves rather than stacked directly atop one another.
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OSHA is asking a federal district court to reject South Carolina’s suit that would block the agency’s years-old requirement for states to match its annual increases to maximum OSH Act penalties, saying that the Palmetto State’s claims are both legally flawed and premature because it has made no formal move to enforce the rule.
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OSHA has unveiled a new version of its “Severe Violator Enforcement Program” (SVEP) targeting employers that “willfully or repeatedly” violate safety standards or refuse to correct violations, broadening a key part of the program to cover all rules rather than only “high emphasis hazards” in a move employer attorneys say could expand its reach “exponentially.”
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Top OSHA officials told advisory panels this week that the agency is poised to advance several long-awaited rules on heat illness, protective gear and more after it completes its permanent COVID-19 safety standard for the healthcare sector, saying the staffing demands of that project have sidelined even major priorities for the Biden administration.
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The discount retail chain Dollar General is telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit it will oppose OSHA’s bid to have the court enforce an “informal settlement agreement” the two sides negotiated over a $145,000 citation for allegedly unsafe conditions at an Ohio store.
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