Some employers are warning OSHA that any move to revive the emergency temporary standard (ETS) would be illegal while others are urging the agency to link any long-term COVID-19 safety standard for the healthcare sector with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance in order to ensure flexibility in response to new research on the disease.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has approved a revised COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) despite ongoing opposition to certain provisions by employer representatives and uncertainty about whether the state will pursue a permanent COVID worker-safety regulation or a broader infectious-disease rulemaking in the months to come.
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy is touting its efforts to limit the scope of OSHA’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare as the most significant victory in its fiscal year 2021 agenda, saying its single-sector focus led to almost 98 percent of the office’s regulatory cost savings for the year.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is floating new revisions to its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that would drop several requirements and instead require employers to follow frequently updated guidance from the state’s health department, though employers’ attorneys say some provisions of the new rule are still too stringent.
A new Office of Inspector General (OIG) report says OSHA took few steps to address possible COVID-19 infection dangers to workers at other federal agencies since 2020, including a finding that it “neither tracked nor analyzed” data that could have provided insight into pandemic-related hazards facing those agencies’ staffs or workers at large.
The three federal appellate judges who will rule on labor unions’ bid to reinstate OSHA’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the healthcare sector raised doubts during oral argument both on the legal status of the rule and whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit would have jurisdiction to force OSHA to bring it back into effect.
As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit prepares to hear labor unions’ suit that would force OSHA to revive its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the healthcare sector, employers’ attorneys are now warning that the agency is advancing overly broad plans for a permanent rule based on the ETS.
The California legislator who proposed a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all workers and contractors has shelved the bill in the face of widespread employer opposition, but lawmakers are moving ahead with another contentious work-safety bill that would tighten recent California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) rules on wildfire smoke and heat illness.
EPA has issued guidance aimed at improving indoor air quality in buildings, calling for measures including ventilation and filtration improvements as well as air quality assessments as part of an administration-wide COVID-19 plan that public health experts hope will eventually lead to binding state or federal safety standards.
OSHA is formally seeking public input on its efforts to develop a permanent COVID-19 safety standard for healthcare facilities based on its defunct emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the sector, and is already floating a long list of potential changes that could broaden the rule’s scope or add more compliance flexibility for employers.