Emerging Safety Issues

Manufacturing and food safety groups are urging OSHA to consider a narrow heat-illness prevention standard limited to outdoor work settings that provides employers “flexibility” to conduct individualized heat hazard assessments based on regional climate and worksite conditions, and in light of available monitoring technology.

OSHA is withdrawing its COVID-19 vaccine emergency temporary standard (ETS) in light of the Supreme Court order blocking its implementation, but says it will continue developing a permanent standard using the emergency rule as a proposal, just days after it told a federal court it is prioritizing a long-term COVID-19 rule for healthcare workers.

OSHA says it is renewing work on a permanent COVID-19 standard for the healthcare sector in light of the Supreme Court ruling that blocked its economy-wide vaccination rule, but warns that a final rule is still “six to nine months” away in a new legal filing opposing unions’ bid for a court order seeking a permanent standard within 30 days.

Attorneys say the Supreme Court’s stay of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccine standard both forces the agency to use the general duty clause as its primary tool to enforce pandemic safety measures, and creates new hurdles for those efforts -- though it could also open the door to a separate rule based on the emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare workers.

Labor groups and House Democrats are urging OSHA to issue a final rule based on its temporary COVID-19 vaccine standard but are split on how to approach that task, with some seeking comprehensive guidelines while others, including the lawmakers, favor a narrower rule that reflects the Supreme Court’s decision blocking the emergency standard.

Environmentalists and work-safety groups are ramping up pressure on OSHA to expedite a heat exposure standard, including through a new study that says high heat conditions, exacerbated by climate change, could lead to as much as $55.4 billion in lost wages annually by 2065 without new workplace protections or greenhouse gas reductions.

Observers say the Supreme Court decision blocking OSHA’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) could chill the future development of safety standards and ease challenges to its rulemakings, especially if the agency attempts to craft "holistic" policies for new dangers.

The Supreme Court’s Jan. 13 order blocking enforcement of the OSHA emergency temporary standard for COVID-19 vaccination is drawing strident responses from all political corners.

The Supreme Court’s decision blocking implementation of OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-test emergency temporary standard (ETS) holds that the economy-wide rule is too broad to fit within the agency’s authority to regulate “occupational safety,” but also provides a roadmap for more targeted limits that could survive judicial review.

The Supreme Court has reinstated a nationwide stay of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, holding that challengers to the rule are “likely to succeed on the merits” of their claims because the rule is broad enough to qualify as a “public health” mandate rather than an occupational standard.