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.
The White House is proposing a $64 million boost to OSHA’s budget including 362 new full-time equivalent (FTE) staff positions, in what would be an across-the-board boost to the agency’s capacity for rulemaking, enforcement and outreach that the Biden administration says is needed to “reassert its position” in national safety policy.
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.
Democratic and Republican leaders on the House Energy & Commerce Committee are questioning the lone member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Assessment Board (CSB) on a range of issues, from the “quorum of one” to possible conflicts of interest among staff, that the lawmakers say “may be undermining” the board’s work.
President Joe Biden’s nominees to fill three of four vacant slots on the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), the agency that advises OSHA and EPA on needed policy changes to curtail industrial incidents, are facing likely Senate confirmation battles as key outside groups are split over their relative expertise.
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.
OSHA is marking the 50th anniversary of its 1971 founding by touting its imminent emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 and its plans to boost enforcement related to the pandemic, while Democratic lawmakers are using the occasion to ready their latest push to overhaul and tighten the OSH Act.
Congress is stepping up its focus on the Biden administration’s worker protection policies, with senators advancing the nomination of Julie Su to be Deputy Labor Secretary while members of a key House subcommittee plan a hearing on OSHA’s development of an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19.
The White House is backing House Democrats’ bill that would give OSHA a one-year deadline to craft a workplace violence standard for health care and social services workers, after a long-pending rulemaking process stalled during the Trump administration, though the legislation faces an uncertain path in the Senate.
President Joe Biden is proposing $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2022 funding for OSHA and other Department of Labor (DOL) worker protection agencies, representing an increase of $304 million or 17 percent over the FY21 enacted level to ramp up enforcement and regulatory efforts to protect employees.