House and Senate Republicans are pushing the Biden administration to appeal a federal district judge’s ruling that vacated a controversial line-speed waiver program at pork plants over worker-safety fears, arguing that allowing the waivers to end would cut the sector’s capacity and cost farmers as much as $80 million in lost sales this year.
Anonymous workers at a Pennsylvania meat plant who sued OSHA over its decision not to take enforcement action over what they said was an “imminent danger” of COVID-19 infections there are appealing a federal district judge’s dismissal of the case, setting up a rare precedential decision on whether the OSH Act allows such suits.
OSHA and four companies that sued over the Obama-era beryllium exposure regulation have reached a settlement to expand the list of “abrasive blasting materials” the agency says in guidance are subject to the rule, potentially resolving a long-running conflict among industry on which materials the policy should cover.
The Biden EPA is seeking a court’s permission to revisit its Trump-era findings on risks posed by workers’ uses of the solvent methylene chloride, including what level of personal protective equipment (PPE) use would mitigate those dangers, in the first step of what could be a sweeping move to bolster protections for workplace chemical exposures.
An asbestos-focused citizen group is urging the Biden administration to mandate steps to protect workers from the notorious carcinogen in its plans for sweeping upgrades to buildings and infrastructure nationwide, claiming that while OSHA and EPA have standards in place for the substance, few employers are actively following them.
The Department of Labor (DOL) is touting a new ruling from an administrative law judge (ALJ) upholding OSHA’s citation against a Florida healthcare center finding managers “exposed workers to more than 50 attacks” from residents, shortly after the House passed a bill to mandate a new workplace violence standard.
Even as OSHA ramps up its COVID-19 enforcement, employers’ attorneys say the more than 300 already filed pandemic citations are facing an extraordinary level of legal push-back, with appeals pending for almost half of the cases -- potentially teeing up pivotal rulings on the agency’s authority to require infection-control measures.
Former Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) Chairman James Sullivan says the Biden OSHA’s plan to step up enforcement, particularly on COVID-19 worker exposures, poses an “interesting” test for OSHRC and its precedent setting a high bar for the agency to sustain penalties in some enforcement cases.
A federal district court judge has dismissed a suit filed by Pennsylvania meat-packing plant workers that aimed to force OSHA to take action against their employer for inadequate protections against COVID-19, finding the OSH Act does not allow such suits unless an inspector makes a formal finding of “imminent danger” at the site.
A federal district judge has scrapped the Trump Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) line-speed waiver for some pork slaughterhouses over its refusal to consider threats to worker safety during the rulemaking process -- a win for unions that said the policy was unlawful -- and is giving the Biden administration 90 days to decide its next steps.