Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced companion measures to restore an Obama-era OSHA regulation that clarified that employers face a continuing obligation to record and report employees' workplace injuries and illnesses, after Republicans and President Donald Trump repealed the rule earlier this year using novel authority under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

Labor and public interest groups are urging White House officials not to weaken or further delay the Obama OSHA's final rule strengthening protections for worker exposure to beryllium, arguing that workers face significant risks from exposure to the substance, including in the construction and maritime sectors that industry is seeking to strip from the rule.

Labor supporters are calling President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office “a gut punch to all workers,” arguing that the administration's repeal and delay of Obama-era safety rules, planned budget cuts for the Labor Department (DOL) and its new Labor Secretary and Supreme Court appointment send a message of “active hostility” to workers.

A labor group is calling for OSHA to continue focusing enforcement on the poultry processing sector because agency data shows poultry workers suffer a disproportionately high rate of severe injuries, backing the need for a continued enforcement emphasis on the sector, despite fears that looming budget cuts -- and a pending court case -- will gut the program.

OSHA enforcement officials are lying low as the Trump administration ramps up plans for cutting government programs and staff at the Labor Department (DOL) and other agencies, sources say, declining to test novel enforcement approaches or issue citations for alleged violations of the Obama OSHA's worker injury reporting rule.

A poultry processing facility is urging federal judges to reject OSHA's appeal of a lower court's ruling that held the agency lacks authority to expand an inspection beyond the circumstances of an employee's injury, faulting OSHA arguments that the company's injury reporting provided “reasonable suspicion” of a possible violation.

President Donald Trump has repealed OSHA's final rule clarifying that employers face a “continuing obligation” to record worker injuries, part of a broad federal effort to roll back Obama-era rules under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) and other authorities that his staff say will continue even after the window for such action closes later this month.

A federal judge has granted OSHA's request to stay for two months a lawsuit builders, petrochemical manufacturers and other industries filed against the Obama administration's final rule updating the agency's worker injury and illness record-keeping program, but the judge sidestepped industry requests to delay the rule's initial July 1 compliance date.

With Congress facing an early May deadline to approve resolutions undoing Obama-era rules, industry and others are raising doubts over whether lawmakers will act in the coming weeks on a pending resolution that would undo changes to the agency's facility safety program, a rule that the Trump EPA is seeking to delay an additional 20 months.

EPA is proposing to delay by an additional 20 months -- from June 19 to Feb. 19, 2019 -- the effective date of the Obama administration's final rule overhauling the agency's industrial facility accident prevention program, citing the need for more time to weigh potential revisions to the rule in response to requests from industry and some states.