Litigation

OSHA is maintaining its defense of a Trump-era decision not to take enforcement action against a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant over conditions workers say pose an “imminent” threat of COVID-19 infection, even as the Biden administration is vowing to pursue stricter workplace safeguards and enforcement during the pandemic.

Amazon is suing New York’s state government to block an enforcement action over COVID-19 exposures at one of its warehouses -- claiming the action is preempted by the OSH Act and further escalating a legal battle over whether states can enforce their pandemic protections in workplaces that OSHA regulates.

Public Citizen claims that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) blocked OSHA from investigating COVID-19 outbreaks at meat-packing plants during the early weeks of the pandemic, touting newly released documents it says show that USDA rejected the agency’s initial outreach and then kept OSHA in a “subservient” role.

Anonymous meat-packing facility workers suing OSHA over its failure to cite their employer for “imminent danger” of COVID-19 infections at their plant say the Biden administration’s new COVID-19 guidance helps their case and are asking a judge to keep the suit alive even after the agency finalized its enforcement findings.

A federal district judge has rejected a lawsuit by public health groups and Democratic states aimed at reversing OSHA’s rollback of an Obama-era rule setting electronic reporting and recordkeeping mandates for employers, ruling that the reversal was within regulators’ discretion and that the groups lacked standing to sue.

A federal appellate court is slated to hear arguments in March in the long-running suits brought by industry, labor and environmental groups seeking to reverse EPA’s first-time TSCA rule banning consumer uses of paint strippers containing methylene chloride, marking an early legal marker for how the Biden administration may address such rules.

A coalition of agriculture industry groups is suing the California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) in a bid to overturn the state’s recently adopted COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for workplace safety, charging the new rules exceed the agency’s authority and threaten to cripple food production and distribution chains.

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has issued a new decision raising the bar for OSHA to enforce its rule that requires safe storage of material in tiers to prevent it from falling on workers, the latest in a series of decisions limiting use of existing standards on the eve of the Biden administration.

Several employers and national business groups are suing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) over its recently adopted COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), claiming in part that a mandate to provide paid leave for sick or exposed workers exceeds the agency’s authority, and that the rulemaking sidestepped key procedural requirements.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D), selected to be President-elect Joe Biden’s health services chief, is petitioning a state court to order Amazon to respond to several subpoenas seeking information about the company’s COVID-19 worker safety protocols and the status of COVID infections at its facilities across the state.