The halt in Congress’ negotiations over a coronavirus response bill means supporters of either a legislative mandate for either OSHA issuing a standard for worker COVID-19 protections or employer virus liability waivers are unlikely to quickly see progress at the federal level, turning focus to states’ rules addressing the pandemic.
OSHA is asking a federal district court to reject a lawsuit that seeks to mandate enforcement action against a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant over fears about inadequate worker protections against COVID-19, arguing that the workers have not met the OSH Act’s “high bar” to override regulators’ enforcement discretion.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected the AFL-CIO’s bid for rehearing in its suit aiming to force OSHA to craft a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), shifting focus from the case back to Congress’ negotiations over potentially mandating a virus standard in the next pandemic response bill.
An official with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) says the state’s novel emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 that could be a model for other states focuses largely on mandatory infection control plans for all workplaces that carry at least a “medium” infection risk.
The House has approved its fiscal year 2021 budget for OSHA with amendments that would boost the agency’s whistleblower programs and require issuance of a binding workplace standard for COVID-19, setting up an eventual clash with the Senate although that chamber has yet to release its own slate of funding bills.
Democrats and Republicans are taking hard lines on the employer liability waiver in the GOP’s newly unveiled COVID-19 relief bill, posing the risk of a stalemate on the next virus economic relief bill as Democrats say the waiver is a “non-starter” while the GOP counters that it must be included in the legislation.
Workers at a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant are suing OSHA for what they say is the agency’s unlawful failure to respond to complaints of “imminent” danger of COVID-19 infection at the facility, arguing that the OSH Act gives the agency no choice but to quickly inspect the facility or to formally reject the complaint as unwarranted.
A bipartisan group of Midwest and coal state House members is pushing legislation that would force the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to develop new workplace COVID-19 protections for miners, in a sign that the partisan gridlock over broader OSHA standards might not extend to sector-specific policies.
Democratic senators say President Donald Trump is failing to adequately coordinate and fund personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and other “front-line” employees during the COVID-19 crisis, urging aggressive action to deliver the equipment regardless of any PPE provisions in the next pandemic response bill.
OSHA is citing a health care company over inadequate worker protections for COVID-19 at odds with requirements in its existing respiratory protection standards, in what appears to be the agency’s first major enforcement action against an employer for not implementing sufficient protections against the virus.