Enforcement

South Carolina is doubling down on its arguments that a pending Supreme Court case over the Administrative Procedure Act's (APA) statute of limitations could ease its challenge to OSHA's mandate for states to match annual increases to federal OSH Act penalties.

Administrative law experts say they expect the Supreme Court will issue a narrow ruling in litigation seeking to limit agency adjudications via administrative law judges (ALJs), tamping down expectations that the case, focused on the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), could have sweeping implications for OSHA and other agencies.

Conservative justices on the Supreme Court appear sympathetic to claims that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) use of administrative law judges (ALJs) violates the 7th Amendment right to a jury trial, but during Nov. 28 oral argument they wrestled with how to craft a new test for the practice amid fears that a broad ruling could upend review of OSHA and other agencies’ enforcement actions.

OSHA is urging a federal district court to reject any link between South Carolina’s latest suit over the federal mandate for states to match their annual penalty increases to federal OSH Act penalties and a pending Supreme Court case that could greatly extend the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) statute of limitations for rule challenges.

The Labor Department (DOL) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has again identified worker safety issues among the top “management challenges” facing the department in its annual report on those high-priority issues, and is recommending a slew of new actions at both OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Statistics showing an increase in workplace deaths for miners in fiscal year 2023 are sparking concern from industry lawyers over how the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) will respond, though one attorney says it is uncertain that the agency has funds and resources for new training or enforcement initiatives.

Unions and their allies, including elected Democrats, are supporting OSHA’s proposal to allow compliance officers inspecting a workplace to bring worker representatives on walkarounds even if they are not affiliated with that employer, arguing that the policy will bolster workers’ rights while seeking relatively minor changes to the agency’s text.

South Carolina is seeking to stay its latest challenge to OSHA’s mandate for states to match annual increases to federal minimum and maximum OSH Act penalties, citing a pending Supreme Court case that it says could loosen the six-year statute of limitations for suing over federal agency action that OSHA has argued is fatal to the current suit.

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) is pressing the Department of Labor to take new steps to protect workers from a wide range of hazards, in particular through “system-wide actions” like training and enforcement boosts, after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found a 7.5 percent annual increase in workplace injuries and illnesses for 2022.

OSHA has signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that aims to deepen information-sharing and cooperative enforcement efforts between the two agencies, with a particular focus on whistleblower protections.