Litigation

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit is set to hear oral argument next week in a suit brought by workers at a Pennsylvania meat plant challenging the Trump OSHA’s refusal to take enforcement action over what they say was an “imminent danger” of COVID-19 infection at their workplace, in a test of one of the OSH Act’s few private rights of action.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected unions’ bid to reinstate OSHA’s COVID-19 healthcare emergency temporary standard (ETS) and impose a strict deadline for the agency to issue a permanent replacement, holding that the OSH Act imposes no “clear duty” on officials to take either step.

Two Universal Health Services (UHS) subsidiaries are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to reverse an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) decision that they say created a “near-boundless” test for when multiple companies can be considered a joint employer under the OSH Act.

South Carolina is asking a federal district court to block what it says is an unlawful campaign by OSHA to require states to increase their maximum work-safety penalties to at least the federal maximum, claiming that the agency is going far beyond what Congress allowed under the OSH Act mandate for state plans to be “at least as effective” as its program.

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has upheld a General Duty Clause citation that OSHA filed against a Pennsylvania construction firm in the wake of a fatal equipment collapse, holding that the citation for failure to perform required maintenance is valid regardless of whether that failure caused the accident.

A Texas construction firm is suing over OSHA’s citation for a 2016 accident where a worker was seriously injured when a crane touched a live power line during disassembly, after the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) twice rejected the employer’s defenses -- including that the crane safety standard should not apply.

OSHA chief Doug Parker told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a sworn July 25 declaration that his agency is “on track” to complete a long-term COVID-19 standard for healthcare workers by September or October, despite Labor Secretary Marty Walsh’s recent comments that the rule could take as long as five months.

The coalition of unions suing OSHA to revive its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the healthcare sector say the agency’s self-imposed timeline for a permanent rule appears at risk of slipping by as much as two months, citing comments by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh during a Senate appropriations hearing.

A federal appeals court has rejected meat producers’ bid to revive litigation over Trump-era line-speed waivers for pork plants, holding that the employers should have tried to intervene in the case while it was still active instead of waiting until the Biden administration decided not to appeal a decision scrapping the program over worker-safety concerns.

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has taken the rare step of announcing that its current members are deadlocked on a pending petition, unveiling a pair of opinions where the two members are at odds on whether claiming a violation occurred “on or about” a particular day gives OSHA leeway to file a citation more than six months later.