Animal welfare advocates challenging the Trump administration’s line-speed waivers for pork slaughterhouses say the Agriculture Department (USDA) is moving slowly, if at all, on a potential reconsideration of the policy, and they are renewing their push for a court ruling that would declare the waivers unlawful.
OSHA is seeking nominees to fill six seats on the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH), just a few weeks after the Trump administration named four new members to the committee during its final days and further advancing the revival of the panel that had been dormant since 2019.
Employers are urging OSHA to use its impending emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 to standardize the nationwide approach to pandemic protections, by formally overriding state-level ETS rules and executive orders that have created a patchwork of workplace safety requirements against the coronavirus.
OSHA is floating the first update to its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) since 2012 -- a move that would more closely align the policy with current international guidelines for chemical labeling in the workplace and could also drive a new effort to incorporate those same requirements into EPA rules.
OSHA is expanding its whistleblower protection program under new statutory authority created in two laws enacted at the end of the Trump administration, including a statute that expanded prohibitions on money laundering and another that created a new anti-retaliation protection for antitrust cases.
Progressive and safety groups are stepping up their push for Congress to reform the OSH Act, including calling for legislation that would allow workers to sue their employers directly over violations of OSHA standards, seeing Democratic control of Congress and the White House as an opportunity to pass new workplace safety legislation.
As the average age of workers rises due to delayed retirements, the economic recession and other factors, employers’ attorneys are warning companies that OSHA could step up enforcement related to ergonomics hazards that can pose a greater risk to older workers even though the agency lacks an explicit ergonomics standard.
For OSHA’s 50th anniversary, President-elect Joe Biden is renewing his pledge to quickly direct the agency to consider whether to issue an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that would mandate workplace COVID-19 protections for employees, while also vowing to ramp up OSHA’s enforcement efforts and staffing levels.
OSHA is facing calls from public commenters to adopt a “prevention through design” (PtD) approach for its powered truck safety standard and incorporate several related data-gathering requirements in the rule based on an existing federal program that so far has focused mainly on building safety.
Worker safety groups say there is no guarantee the Biden administration will drop an upcoming Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposal that would allow poultry slaughterhouses to raise line speeds to what they say are unsafe levels, especially since it is based on a plan first floated by incoming Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.