Attorneys are urging employers to begin preparing to comply with California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) landmark indoor heat worker-safety rules expected to take effect July 1, saying the agency is likely to make the standards an immediate area of “emphasis” for enforcement despite their complex and lengthy suite of requirements.
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su used a Jan. 26 event to back Democrats’ latest iteration of a bill that would set a strict deadline for OSHA to enact its long-delayed workplace violence standard for the healthcare sector, despite the agency’s failure to even set a target for a proposal some eight years after beginning the rulemaking process.
Republican leaders for the House Energy and Commerce Committee are urging EPA to withdraw and repropose its upcoming Risk Management Program (RMP) rule update, charging that the proposed version conflicts with OSHA and other agencies’ responsibilities, goes beyond Congress’ explicit mandates, and raises security concerns among things.
In the aftermath of a series of fires at renewable fuel refineries that led to at least one worker suffering critical burns, the United Steelworkers (USW) is petitioning California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to develop an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that would subject those facilities to the same tough worker-safety rules the state applies to petroleum refineries.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has sent its final rule updating the 50-year-old standards for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review, advancing a long-delayed rulemaking process and teeing up a last round of debate on the policy.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is gearing up to consider a long-pending, controversial proposal to adopt updated federal fall-protection safety standards for residential frame construction, amid continued fierce opposition from construction companies, employers and industry groups.
A coalition of labor and environmental groups is urging OSHA to formally propose its long-delayed heat-danger standard before the start of summer, and to prioritize what they say are key elements for the eventual rule such as requiring employers to craft mandatory written safety programs and allow flexibility only within “careful” limits.
Trade groups are urging EPA to rewrite not only its proposed TSCA exposure limit for trichloroethylene (TCE) but also its broader approach to crafting existing chemical exposure limits (ECELs) under the toxics law, arguing that the current process is “opaque” and must at minimum go through a public peer review.
EPA’s proposal to change how TSCA chemical evaluations consider workers’ use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is drawing starkly different interpretations from industry and a labor-environmental coalition, with each side insisting that the agency is enacting the other’s preferred approach and demanding a reversal.
Led by President Joe Biden, OSHA has unveiled its long-promised proposal to set health and safety standards for “emergency responders,” replacing a current rule that applies only to firefighters with one that also covers emergency medical personnel and search-and-rescue workers, and floating a long list of requirements that aim to address dangers ranging from toxic chemicals and equipment failures to the mental health impacts of overwork.