California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is beginning a rulemaking process to toughen its enforcement policies by creating new citations for “enterprise-wide” and “egregious” violations, and substantially hiking potential monetary penalties on companies -- steps mandated by a 2021 state law but which the agency is only now preparing to implement.
September 16, 2026
OSHA is asking a federal district court to dismiss employer and trade associations’ challenge to its controversial rule allowing employee representatives to participate in enforcement “walkarounds” outside of their own work sites, arguing that the plaintiffs have shown no concrete harm from the new policy in addition to defending its legality.
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South Carolina is preparing to resume its challenge to OSHA’s mandate for state plans to match federal OSH Act penalty levels, after the Supreme Court eased the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) six-year deadline for suits against the federal government that the agency previously touted in a bid to dismiss the case.
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A broad coalition of employers is arguing that OSHA’s rule allowing employee representatives to participate in enforcement “walkarounds” outside of their own work sites violates multiple statutes and Constitutional doctrines, in their first formal bid for a federal court to overturn the policy.
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OSHA and Dollar General have agreed to settle a years-long enforcement suit over claims of widespread unsafe conditions such as faulty emergency exits at the discount retail chain, including a $12 million monetary penalty and commitments from the company to improve worker protections across its stores.
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Legal experts are warning that the Supreme Court’s recent decision holding that defendants are entitled to jury trials when contesting Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) administrative enforcement actions seeking civil penalties could tee up challenges to many agencies’ programs, and potentially make them less aggressive even if those suits do not succeed.
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The California Labor Commissioner’s Office is fining Amazon.com Services, LLC nearly $6 million for alleged violations of the state’s “Warehouse Quotas” law at two distribution facilities, saying the lapses threaten the health of workers and putting new focus on a raft of state and federal enforcement actions against the online retailer that began in 2022.
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President Joe Biden is nominating a longtime labor and trade official to one of the two vacant seats on the Occupational Safety and Health Association Review Commission (OSHRC), after the Senate’s inaction on a prior nominee has left the panel with just a single active member, and thus unable to decide cases, for over a year.
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Employer groups are lining up behind House Republicans’ Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would scrap OSHA’s controversial worker walkaround rule, renewing their arguments that it oversteps the agency’s statutory authority and threatens workplace security, although the measure is all but certain to fail since it is subject to a presidential veto.
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A slew of prominent associations representing employers and industry sectors has sued OSHA over its controversial “third-party” worker walkaround rule, incorporating arguments voiced by a range of trade groups and attorneys that the rule exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority, violates several federal laws and poses a threat to workplace security.
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