A new decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) holds for apparently the first time that road construction companies must adopt fall-protection measures for employees working from the backs of moving vehicles, but the panel took no clear position on what abatement methods the employers must use.
OSHA plans to start enforcing its COVID-19 vaccination emergency temporary standard (ETS) on Jan. 10, with employer vaccine policies to take effect Feb. 9 -- provided employers make “good faith efforts” to comply -- after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit voted 2-1 to dissolve an earlier order staying the rule.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has denied petitions for initial en banc review of the consolidated challenges to OSHA’s vaccine emergency temporary standard (ETS), opening the field of judges who could potentially serve on a three-judge panel to decide whether to lift an injunction blocking the standard’s adoption.
Animal welfare and labor rights advocates are taking aim at the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new “time-limited trials” allowing some poultry and pork slaughterhouses to raise line speeds if they implement worker safety measures, saying they see little difference from a speed-waiver program that a court scrapped earlier this year.
The Senate voted Dec. 7 to approve a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would nullify OSHA’s emergency COVID-19 vaccination rule with two Democrats joining the chamber’s Republicans to back it, marking a symbolic win for the GOP even though it faces long odds in the House and a certain veto if it does pass there.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is backing a Republican-led effort to repeal OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccines, all but guaranteeing it will pass the 50-50 Senate while House Republicans are hoping to secure support from Democratic moderates that would allow them to force a vote in the lower chamber.
Two OSHA-related nominees won key Senate votes Dec. 2, as lawmakers voted to confirm Larry Turner as the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new Inspector General (IG) just hours after members of the labor committee backed Susan Harthill’s nomination to join the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).
OSHA is extending by 45 days the deadline for public comment on its COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS), as stakeholders await a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on whether it will lift an injunction blocking the rule’s implementation.
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) will review a case that could set a new precedent for how it deals with situations where an employer “disregards” deadlines to participate in an appeal, while the Senate labor committee is poised to vote on President Joe Biden’s nominee to the panel as soon as Dec. 2.
Washington state is forging ahead with rulemaking based on OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination and testing despite a court order blocking implementation of the federal rule, as officials there say they “are not delaying” work on their vaccine rule while other delegated states are weighing next steps.