Litigation

Employer groups are sharply attacking OSHA’s first substantive defense of its controversial rule allowing “third-party” employee representatives to take part in inspection walkarounds, arguing that the agency is refusing to acknowledge likely harms from the new policy while adopting a “baffling” reading of the OSH Act.

OSHA is seeking to dismiss South Carolina’s suit challenging an Obama-era rule directing states to match federal OSH Act penalty levels, renewing its charge that the state missed a statutory deadline and that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling easing some statutes of limitations has no bearing on this case because it could have sued at any time in that window.

Two employer attorneys say an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) recent decision partly scrapping an OSHA citation based on whether a worker killed in a 2020 accident had been standing in a recognized “danger zone” underlines the burden the agency faces to show specific evidence of industry practice to support such claims.

United Airlines is asking the 7th Circuit to review an OSHA enforcement case where it has argued that its agreements with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its staff union limit its duty to implement certain hazard-prevention requirements under the OSH Act -- a claim an administrative law judge (ALJ) rejected earlier this year.

A federal appellate court has for a second time denied the AFL-CIO’s petition to intervene in litigation over TSCA limits on methylene chloride to defend the rule against industry challenges, appearing to guarantee that no environmental or labor group will be able to step in if the next administration stops defending the case or seeks to settle it.

The California government district that owns and manages the Golden Gate Bridge is suing OSHA over a Trump-era guidance letter that loosened its safety standard for scaffolding, calling it an “illegal and unjustified attempt to reduce the factor of safety for temporary scaffolding designs,” that contradicts the regulatory text.

The AFL-CIO is again seeking approval to intervene in litigation over EPA’s TSCA rule for methylene chloride to defend the policy, saying the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has set a “quite low” bar for the step by granting a parallel bid from industry, even after it also denied the union’s first request earlier this month.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has set a quick schedule to reconsider its decision upholding a National Marine Fisheries Commission (NMFS) rule after the Supreme Court vacated the court’s 2022 holding when it overturned the longstanding Chevron deference doctrine, setting up an early test of how lower courts will apply the new precedent.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has approved a bid from the American Chemistry Council (ACC) to defend portions of EPA’s rule setting worker-protection and other mandates for use of the solvent methylene chloride while denying a parallel request from the AFL-CIO, giving the industry group an equal role with EPA in the case.

OSHA is asking a federal district court to dismiss employer and trade associations’ challenge to its controversial rule allowing employee representatives to participate in enforcement “walkarounds” outside of their own work sites, arguing that the plaintiffs have shown no concrete harm from the new policy in addition to defending its legality.