Enforcement

Industry groups and unions are raising sharply contrasting arguments on OSHA’s pending final rule to allow worker representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site, with employers calling the rule “unconstitutional” and demanding it be scrapped while labor groups are strongly backing it.

Employers’ attorneys are highlighting California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) newly released list of its most frequently cited standards in recent enforcement actions -- led by injury and illness prevention plans and outdoor heat exposure programs -- to show how the state agency’s enforcement priorities differ significantly from federal OSHA’s.

Republicans on the House Workforce Committee are renewing their attacks on OSHA’s rulemaking to revive an Obama-era policy allowing worker representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site, charging that the rule “interferes in labor-management relations” as the White House has begun reviewing the final policy.

Attorneys for an industry law firm used a recent webinar to highlight what they say are likely pitfalls for employers as OSHA’s electronic recordkeeping and reporting rule comes into effect this year, including a heightened need to track injuries as they happen and the threat of repeated citations if a company fails to implement the new program.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has begun review of OSHA’s final rule expected to revive an Obama-era policy allowing worker representatives to take part in enforcement “walkaround” inspections even if they are not employed at the site, despite warnings from industry that the regulation is legally vulnerable.

Without a public announcement, OSHA has updated its nearly 30-year-old enforcement handbook for the process safety management (PSM) standard, adding dozens of interpretations the agency previously set out in responses to stakeholders’ letters questioning various aspects of the rule’s meaning or application.

OSHA has announced its annual inflation adjustments to minimum and maximum OSH Act penalties for violations cited in the coming year, raising both figures by about 3.2 percent and triggering a regulatory mandate for state plans to apply a matching adjustment to their own penalties, amid continuing litigation over whether than requirement is lawful.

The court hearing South Carolina's challenge to the OSHA mandate for states to match inflation adjustments in federal OSH Act penalties is staying the case pending a Supreme Court decision on the Administrative Procedure Act's (APA) statute of limitations, rejecting arguments from the agency that legal issues in the two are largely unrelated.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has published a pair of reports in the space of a week that call for OSHA to craft new safety standards, with one recommending the agency enact a nationwide safety rule for workers who deal with liquid nitrogen and another broadening its past calls for a rulemaking on combustible dust.

OSHA’s latest regulatory agenda says it intends to advance several long-promised rules in either the final days of 2023 or early 2024, including updated safety standards for powered industrial trucks and elevated walking surfaces, even higher-profile rulemakings such as those for heat danger, workplace violence and infectious diseases remain on uncertain timelines.