Labor unions are urging California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) and its standards board to thoroughly consider potential dangers workers could face from increased use of autonomous vehicles (AVs), including through an advisory committee agency staff have proposed to help craft what would be a first-time rule for autonomous tractors in the agriculture sector.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law a pair of bills aimed at expanding worker safety at refineries and hospitals, as well as legislation requiring workplace first-aid kits to contain the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that sought to ensure workers compensation benefits for heat-related injuries in the agriculture sector, objecting to the prospect of linking California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) and the state’s workers compensation agency, while citing several existing programs that he says already protect employees from heat.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is weighing whether to enact a bill unanimously backed by state legislators that would expand the state’s stringent petroleum refinery worker-safety standards to biorefineries and other facilities, in response to labor union concerns about a recent series of fires at renewable fuel production plants that caused serious injuries.
David Michaels, who led OSHA for nearly all of the Obama administration, says local authorities should issue their own workplace protections for heat rather than waiting for the federal agency to enact its proposed standard, noting that a final version is likely years away and probably would be scrapped under a second Trump administration.
Industry groups representing fabricated stone manufacturing companies are pressing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials to ease certain sections of their proposed permanent rules to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica, including by relaxing requirements for respirators and providing more incentives for in-shop improvements.
California’s toxics department is posing new questions for stakeholder feedback as part of its proposal to require consideration of nail polish and related products containing triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) as a “priority product” under the state’s green chemistry program, an action the department is taking in part due to potential risks to salon workers.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has signed into law additional requirements for employers to protect retail employees from workplace violence incidents, about two months after similar new legislatively required measures took effect in California.
Labor unions and worker-protection groups are at odds with employer representatives over California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) latest revised draft permanent workplace violence-prevention rules, even as companies continue to scramble to comply with interim statutorily required measures that took effect July 1.
California lawmakers have passed bills to tighten existing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) standards, including requiring the installation of metal detectors in hospitals, adding the opioid overdose medication naloxone hydrochloride to workplace first-aid kits, and compensating outdoor workers who suffer heat-related injuries because employers violated safety rules.