The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has rejected a Florida contracting firm’s argument that the multi-employer doctrine that allows OSHA to cite several companies at the same worksite for a single hazard conflicts with precedent in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, even as it overturned the citation at the heart of the dispute.
A Massachusetts hospital and its Delaware-based management company are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to review an OSHA enforcement action that treated the two as a “single employer,” setting up a potentially precedent-setting decision on when the agency can subject firms to higher penalties that stem from such a standard.
President Joe Biden has withdrawn his nomination of attorney and former Obama Department of Labor deputy solicitor Susan Harthill to serve on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), leaving the normally three-member panel to continue with two commissioners for the foreseeable future.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has largely upheld an enforcement citation stemming from a 2018 construction accident, holding that OSHA’s safety standard for cranes and derricks requires strict adherence to equipment manuals and rejecting the employer’s argument that its use of “similar” safety measures was sufficient.
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.
Federal district and appellate courts are wrestling with next steps in litigation over Trump-era policies lifting line-speed caps on pork slaughterhouses, even after the Biden administration accepted a decision scrapping that program and replaced it with “time-limited trials” for higher speeds that critics say continue to ignore worker safety and other concerns.
OSHA is reversing its Trump-era arguments that prompted a federal district court to narrow the application of a little-used OSH Act provision allowing workers to sue the agency to force action on an “imminent” workplace danger, after former officials said the precedent could undermine enforcement more broadly.
A new decision from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) appears aimed at clarifying the limits of its test for determining when separate entities may be considered a “single employer” in OSHA enforcement actions, holding that related companies with common management may be held liable for recurrent offenses.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral argument April 4 in labor groups’ bid to reinstate OSHA’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the healthcare sector, setting the stage for what could be a precedent-setting decision on whether the agency has authority -- or even a duty -- to extend such emergency regulations.