California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board has scrapped its contentious revision to the state’s COVID-19 standards that drew fire from employers and others for what critics said were overly strict masking and distancing requirements, and is proposing a more lenient update that it could adopt as soon as June 17.
Unions and their allies are pushing back on OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19, arguing that limiting the rule to healthcare workers leaves at-risk workers in other industries unprotected, even as employers’ attorneys are warning that the agency could soon tighten enforcement across all industry sectors.
OSHA has released its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare employers, alongside new general-industry guidance for the pandemic that focuses on vaccination and recommends infection-control measures only for workplaces where some employees are not yet vaccinated.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says OSHA will release June 10 a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) that applies only to the medical sector, rejecting arguments from unions and safety groups that a general-industry standard is still needed despite widespread vaccinations.
Anonymous workers at a Pennsylvania meat plant who sued OSHA over its decision not to take enforcement action over what they said was an “imminent danger” of COVID-19 infections there are appealing a federal district judge’s dismissal of the case, setting up a rare precedential decision on whether the OSH Act allows such suits.
The Department of Labor (DOL) is suing a New York healthcare center over allegations that it fired a whistleblower who raised alarms over potential COVID-19 exposures at the business -- the first time it has announced opening a lawsuit over whistleblower claims related to the pandemic.
Employers and industry groups hope to fast-track further changes to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) after the agency’s regulatory body adopted new requirements in “bizarre” fashion on June 4, drawing charges that the new mandates clash with federal guidance and the state’s reopening plan.
Employer and industry attorneys are criticizing the California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) draft revised COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) as not appropriately relaxed to conform with new physical distancing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ahead of a key June 3 vote by the agency’s standards board.
Republicans on the Senate labor committee are calling on Doug Parker, President Joe Biden’s nominee as the next OSHA chief, to withdraw the agency’s planned COVID-19 standard (ETS), telling Parker during his May 27 confirmation hearing that vaccinations have eliminated the need for a pandemic worker safety rule.
OSHA is walking back its guidance for employers to treat adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccination as “work-related” for recordkeeping and reporting purposes if the vaccine was “required” for workers, promising not to enforce that mandate until at least 2022 in order to avoid “any appearance of discouraging” vaccination.