A newly published OSHA letter crafted during the final days of the Trump administration says the agency’s injury and illness recordkeeping mandate applies only once in situations where a worker suffers multiple injuries days apart but stemming from the same event, so that companies do not have to “double report” injuries.
Former Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) Chairman James Sullivan has left the panel to return to private practice, opening a seat on the three-person panel more than a month before his term was slated to expire and setting the stage for President Joe Biden to name his first OSHRC nominee.
OSHA is seeking nominees to fill six seats on the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH), just a few weeks after the Trump administration named four new members to the committee during its final days and further advancing the revival of the panel that had been dormant since 2019.
Even as the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) works to continue operating despite a one-member board and a lack of administrative resources, industry attorneys say it still has the capacity to boost inspections of incidents involving using potentially hazardous chemicals from Trump-era levels, should officials choose to take that path.
Employers’ attorneys see OSHA’s newly announced national emphasis program (NEP) for COVID-19 as a major shift in the agency’s approach to the pandemic that could drive an immediate rise in enforcement, even as OSHA continues to weigh issuing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the virus.
OSHA is launching a new enforcement “emphasis” program to tackle COVID-19 workplace exposures, bolstered with $100 million in funding for the agency through the newly enacted stimulus law that will in part assist the enforcement effort, amid suggestions that OSHA might delay an emergency safety rule for the virus.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has overturned a 2018 OSHA citation to a construction firm for falling hazards at a subcontractor’s worksite, holding that while the agency proved the company was a controlling employer at the site there was scant evidence that it was aware of the subcontractor’s violation.
OSHA identified more violations of fall-protection standards than of any other safety regulations in its fiscal year 2020 enforcement actions, according to preliminary figures from deputy agency enforcement chief Patrick Kapust, with the respiratory protection standard being the only pandemic-related policy in the “top 10” for citations.
A Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (OIG) report faulting OSHA for reducing workplace inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for the agency to swiftly develop an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to control the spread of the virus among employees, according to a top House Democrat.
A California state senator is advancing legislation to bolster California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) enforcement measures to protect workers from COVID-19, provide new tools to hold large employers accountable for workplace health and safety violations, and encourage workers to report unsafe working conditions while preventing employer retaliation.