California lawmakers have approved a statewide audit of California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) inspection and enforcement processes, amid criticism that the “understaffed” agency is failing to adequately protect agriculture and other workers from on-the-job dangers and fails to properly cite and collect fines from violators.
September 16, 2026
OSHA is reworking the borders between several of its regions and abandoning the long-standing numbered designations for those offices, saying the changes will help it “direct its resources effectively and make the agency more resilient” in part by prioritizing states that lack delegated authority to implement the OSH Act.
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Two employer attorneys are pointing to several aspects of OSHA inspections where they say companies could either contest the agency’s approval of “third-party” worker representatives under a controversial new rule or limit their access to job sites, previewing potential case-by-case disputes that could run parallel to broader litigation over the policy’s legality.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has denied a Texas contracting firm’s bid to overturn an OSHA trench-safety citation under the “unpreventable employee misconduct” (UEM) doctrine, backing the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s (OSHRC) application of a four-part test for employers to invoke that defense.
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OSHA has released an FAQ document that aims to clarify implementation details for its controversial rule allowing worker representatives to take part in “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site under review, including how non-unionized workers can select representatives and steps employers can take to avoid disclosure to outsiders.
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Critics of OSHA’s controversial rule to allow worker representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections, even if they are not employed at the site under review, say changes to the final version did little to address their concerns, and one employer attorney says court challenges are now “all but guaranteed.”
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OSHA has released the final version of its controversial rule to allow worker representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site under review, making only minimal changes from the 2023 proposal while laying out counterarguments to employers’ claims that the new policy is illegal or unconstitutional.
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An attorney for employers says he anticipates that OSHA will soon finalize its controversial rule to allow representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site, after the regulation sped through White House review -- a move he says is almost guaranteed to bring immediate court challenges.
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OSHA is petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit to require a Kansas-based contracting company to comply with Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) orders after the firm was found liable for four OSH Act violations -- a rare step for the agency to rely on a court petition to enforce orders.
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The Biden administration is asking Congress to set OSHA’s budget at $655.463 million in fiscal year 2025 as part of a pared-down budget for the Department of Labor (DOL) as a whole -- an increase from current levels but substantially below what the White House sought in prior appropriations requests.
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