OSHA, EPA and other state and federal agencies are taking steps to protect healthcare and other workers against potential exposure from the deadly coronavirus, including OSHA’s suggestion that some existing standards might apply to preventing occupational exposure and EPA issuing guidance on using disinfectants to help limit the spread of diseases.
The safety advocacy group Food & Water Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) aiming to force release of data underpinning the agency’s final rule easing swine slaughter inspection mandates, a policy that the group has warned poses major risks to workers.
Employer attorneys are alerting companies in California about their responsibilities to comply with new state OSHA wildfire smoke exposure and safety rules, highlighting the importance of adhering to the rules while multiple fires sweep through large swaths of the state in both agricultural and urban areas.
A staffing firm executive told House lawmakers at a recent hearing that the trend toward greater use of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace could bolster worker safety through a combination of new data-driven safeguards and shifting repetitive or weight-bearing tasks away from humans.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is threatening to veto a controversial bill championed by Democratic leaders of the state’s legislature that would lock into state law Obama-era worker safety and other rules in a dispute over how to address water supplies.
Worker and other safety advocates are warning they might sue the Agriculture Department (USDA) over its just-issued rule easing swine slaughter inspection requirements and increasing line speeds, arguing the measure will increase risks to workers that already face some of the highest workplace injury rates in the country.
Major disagreements between California employers and workers are already flaring as Cal/OSHA launches the development of permanent safety rules for wildfire smoke, a draft of which is more stringent than a set of emergency rules the agency’s standards board adopted last month.
A former Labor Department (DOL) regional solicitor is blaming the U.S. opioid crisis in part on President George W. Bush’s backing of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution that scrapped Clinton OSHA workplace ergonomics standards, saying the rules could have prevented many injuries that may have been treated with opioids.
Cal/OSHA’s standards board has adopted first-time emergency rules to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke, which employers in California must implement by early August and which could serve as a model for other states that lack such measures and are also experiencing increasing numbers and intensity of fires due in part to climate change.
Cal/OSHA is advancing for formal rulemaking first-time regulations to prevent indoor heat illness among workers across an array of job sectors, drawing concerns and recommendations from both labor representatives and employers, who suggest that other states could eventually follow California’s lead.