Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says OSHA will release June 10 a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that applies only to the medical sector, rejecting arguments from unions and safety groups that a general-industry standard is still needed despite widespread vaccinations.
September 17, 2026
OSHA has named five new members to its Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH) and renewed another 10 for new two-year terms, including an official with North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) who will serve as chair, in the Biden administration’s first round of appointments to an agency panel.
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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.
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Republicans on the Senate labor committee are calling on Doug Parker, President Joe Biden’s nominee as the next OSHA chief, to withdraw the agency’s planned COVID-19 standard (ETS), telling Parker during his May 27 confirmation hearing that vaccinations have eliminated the need for a pandemic worker safety rule.
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OSHA is proposing a second set of revisions to its 2016 fall-prevention standard to address what it says were unclear provisions and typographical errors in the Obama-era rule governing elevated “walking-working surfaces,” including a formatting mistake that left out key language on guardrails for staircases.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has unveiled new COVID-19 guidance that allows “fully vaccinated” individuals to avoid wearing masks or socially distancing in many settings, just as employers are urging OSHA to include similar language in its upcoming emergency temporary standard (ETS).
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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.
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OSHA has issued interim enforcement guidance for revisions the Trump administration made last year to the agency’s beryllium standards, detailing procedures to guide compliance officers’ site inspections and citations for alleged violations of the revised policies for general industry worksites, shipyards and construction sites.
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OSHA appears to be readying a request for information to inform a first-time update to its 1971 safety standard for mechanical power presses, after the agency first announced that it was planning to rework the policy during the George W. Bush administration but took no concrete steps toward a new version for almost 14 years.
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OSHA has sent its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) rule for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, more than six weeks after President Joe Biden’s deadline for the ETS that observers expect will take effect within weeks and could include tiered mandates for specific industries.
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