Enforcement

OSHA is touting the launch of its new OSHA Cares compliance assistance initiative that it says is focused on helping businesses meet federal workplace safety requirements while also building strong, successful safety and health programs that benefit employers and workers.

A Texas oil field equipment supplier is challenging the constitutionality of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) after receiving OSHA citations related to the death of a subcontractor’s employee, becoming the latest company seeking to expand the Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy ruling.

The 4th Circuit has scheduled oral argument for May 5 in litigation where South Carolina is seeking to reinstate its challenge to OSHA’s requirement that states match annual increases to federal minimum and maximum OSH Act penalties after a federal judge last year dismissed for a second time the state’s challenge.

An employer-focused attorney is cautioning companies that a new OSHA compliance-assistance program is only a start to ensuring workplaces are following federal requirements, even as the agency continues to tout the program’s benefits.

OSHA’s redesign of a poster that employers must post informing employees of the protections and obligations provided for in the OSH Act fails to provide information on some of employees’ most important rights and makes no mention of key employer responsibilities, Obama-era OSHA chief Jordan Barab says.

The 8th Circuit has denied without comment OSHA’s request for rehearing of a landmark ruling from a three-judge panel of the court that found the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) preempts OSHA from regulating worker safety around railcars.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and several of her Democratic colleagues are pressing Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and OSHA head David Keeling to explain why the agency is proposing to roll back several worker protection standards and has reduced enforcement efforts.

The D.C. Circuit is questioning whether it has jurisdiction to decide a dispute between the Labor Department (DOL) and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC) over whether the Labor secretary can vacate a citation or remove a designation indicating the violation is particularly serious.

The 10th Circuit has upheld OSHA citations against a Colorado psychiatric hospital for failing to prevent workplace violence, rejecting arguments that the agency lacked authority under the OSH Act’s General Duty Clause to issue the citations and that an administrative law judge (ALJ) erred in backing the citations.

The 11th Circuit has rejected a Georgia construction company’s challenge to OSHA’s multi-employer policy, finding the company failed to preserve for appeal most of its objections and that it failed to demonstrate that compliance with specific safety standards was infeasible.