Whistleblower protection groups are asking OSHA to take new steps to help undocumented workers report safety violations and seek protection from unlawful retaliation following a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo ending immigration agencies’ practice of raiding work site to make mass arrests.
The country’s largest nurses’ union is calling on OSHA to step up enforcement of its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare, arguing that a recent survey of hospital conditions shows widespread noncompliance with key provisions of the ETS, including on testing and protective gear, in its first month of implementation.
OSHA is rejecting an Inspector General (OIG) report that found silica standard inspections dropped by 50 percent when its long-standing enforcement emphasis program lapsed and recommended policy reforms to avoid such gaps, arguing that it is not “appropriate” for the watchdog office to weigh in on the agency’s enforcement priorities.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law a bill that employer attorneys say will “vastly” expand California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) enforcement authority and hike monetary penalty amounts for regulatory violations, as well as giving the agency new power to seek permanent injunctions against employer operations.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is setting a demanding test for OSHA to enforce portions of its safety standard for telecommunications work, holding that a cable company exercised “reasonable diligence” when it assumed an experienced worker would follow training on the standard without close supervision.
OSHA is strengthening enforcement and outreach “to better protect heat-exposed workers” as part of a larger “multi-prong” initiative from the Biden administration to combat heat-related illness, after worker-safety and environmental groups pressed the White House for action following this summer’s record-setting heat waves.
OSHA’s New England Region I is stepping up enforcement targeting “tree trimming and removal, landscaping and site preparation” work, saying the 31 reported worker deaths in those sectors since 2016 are “alarming and unacceptable” to the point where they warrant a formal regional emphasis program (REP).
Provisions in the House’s $3.5 trillion spending bill would raise the statutory penalties for OSH Act violations by a factor of 10, up to a minimum of $50,000 and maximum of $700,000 -- setting the stage for Democrats to pass a key element of their a long-running push for broader reforms to the law.
In a first-of-its-kind partnership, OSHA is pledging to craft pilot programs with Mexico that will allow its consulates to file safety complaints and share feedback on behalf of Mexican nationals working in the United States, as part of a newly announced bilateral agreement to improve the well-being of Mexican workers under U.S. jurisdiction.
A new Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) raises the already-high bar OSHA must clear to cite employers for a willful violation of its noise exposure standard, holding that the agency must go beyond showing that an employer had a heightened awareness of the standard.