An industry attorney says that a recent OSHA settlement with a New York recycling company resolving violations of the agency's bloodborne pathogens standard suggests the agency is expanding its interpretation of the standard despite the Trump OSHA's shelving Obama-era plans for a rule bolstering protections against the risk.
November 15, 2026
The poultry industry is downplaying a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that urged OSHA and other agencies to step up scrutiny of worker safety in the sector but nevertheless indicated it would continue to make improvements in its safety practices.
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Labor groups are urging OSHA to bolster inspections and training aimed at limiting harms to disaster relief workers after a study they conducted found that 85 percent of day laborers who worked in hurricane-impacted areas reported receiving no training for the worksites they were entering and more than a third of all workers in post-Harvey Houston reported being injured on the job.
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The Senate on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) has scheduled a Dec. 5 confirmation hearing for Scott Mugno, the FedEx safety executive tapped by the Trump administration's to lead OSHA.
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New Jersey officials say the Department of Justice's (DOJ) input may be warranted after their criticism of an EPA-administered reporting law in the state's defense against environmentalist and labor groups' lawsuit seeking release of industrial facility data, in a case that could have broad implications for public disclosure of facility data.
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Despite high expectations for the Trump administration to rein in the Obama OSHA's emphasis on enforcement, industry attorneys are suggesting that Scott Mugno, the Fedex official tapped to lead the agency, may struggle to quickly ramp up compliance assistance, while labor groups say thorough vetting of his safety priorities is needed.
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A labor official is faulting the Trump OSHA for de-emphasizing worker deaths on its website after the agency narrowed criteria for publishing worker fatality data online and replaced a section of its homepage dedicated to worker fatalities with information on compliance assistance efforts.
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Washington state firefighters are urging Democratic senators to halt development of a novel dispersion modeling approach for assessing risks from toxic gas releases, arguing the federal agency and industry collaboration underestimates risks to the public in filings with EPA and other agencies, though an industry group says the method is based on sound science and may still be revised.
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OSHA is struggling to implement the Obama administration's rule overhauling the agency's worker injury and illness reporting program, facing hurdles in enforcing anti-retaliation provisions and lacking a portal for electronic reporting, potentially providing fodder for the Trump administration to scale back the rule, an industry attorney says.
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Construction and manufacturing groups are urging the Trump OSHA to stay and significantly revise the Obama administration's landmark final rule limiting worker exposures to silica dusts, arguing that companies are unable to comply with the rule and that reconsideration will allow the agency to fix defects in the issuance of the rule.
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