OSHA has agreed to reform how it handles reimbursements to state plans for emergency supplemental funding following a report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) faulting several aspects of the process, though the agency is maintaining that some of the problems that report found with fund allocation were out of its control.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is calling on OSHA to improve how it investigates and records worker deaths in the oil and gas extraction (OGE) sector, saying the agency’s current practices and lack of a specific safety standard for OGE work have produced incomplete data as part of a report on fatalities in the industry.
A group that advocates for restaurant workers is urging OSHA to include kitchens in its forthcoming standard for heat danger, escalating labor groups’ recent calls for the rule to extend beyond outdoor job sites and to mandate protections such as sufficient breaks, heat education and acclimatization plans for all employees.
Republicans on the House COVID-19 committee have opened an investigation of OSHA’s development and implementation of its now-abandoned COVID-19 vaccination rule, probing how the standard came to be and requesting extensive documentation and communications from the agency to investigate “any wrongdoing by government officials.”
Prompted by a White House call, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a heat hazard alert reminding employers they have a legal duty to protect workers from high heat while also re-upping pledges to step up enforcement of such measures but worker safety advocates say those actions do not go far enough and are renewing their calls for OSHA to issue an interim heat standard while it works on a permanent regulation.
OSHA is formally asking representatives of small businesses and government entities to weigh in on its development of a long-awaited nationwide standard for heat danger, through a Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) process it plans to hold in the coming months -- a major step toward release of a formal proposal.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is urging OSHA to craft a safety standard for meat and poultry workers that would cover infectious disease in a new report that says the agency’s “continuing challenges” in the sector have been deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it “missed opportunities” to collaborate with other authorities to address them.
OSHA is seeking to release by the end of this month long-awaited final rules on both electronic recordkeeping mandates and COVID-19 infection controls in healthcare facilities, alongside several proposed policies, while delaying other rulemakings from their previous timelines -- some by over a year, according to its latest Unified Agenda of rulemaking actions.
OSHA is asking employers, workers and their advocates to weigh in on how it can help cement workplace safety and health as a “core value” at businesses nationwide, in what agency standards and guidance chief Andrew Levinson says will be a major focus over the coming years.
OSHA is seeking stakeholder feedback on “leading indicators” that can help workers and regulatory identify potential hazards before an injury or other incident, such as low workplace training rates or infrequent equipment maintenance, as it prepares to develop a resource for tracking those factors.