Litigation

A panel of three appellate judges is grappling with what remedy they could give OSHA if they side with the agency in a suit challenging a finding by OSHA’s independent review panel that raised the bar for citing companies for “repeat” workplace safety rule violations, as well as trying to resolve whether the lawsuit is moot.

The Supreme Court’s June 2019 decision curtailing judicial deference to agencies’ regulatory interpretations could make OSHA efforts to reverse prior policies through new guidance vulnerable to court challenges because judges interpret it as bolstering limits on imposing an “unfair surprise” to stakeholders, attorneys say.

A federal district judge says in a new order that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) appears to have “engaged in arbitrary decision-making” by not addressing worker safety concerns in its rule revising swine slaughterhouse line speeds, allowing worker advocates to proceed with their challenge to the policy.

EPA is urging a federal appeals court to reject environmentalists’ request to stay litigation challenging its rollback of Obama-era chemical disaster safety mandates as the agency weighs their reconsideration petitions, arguing a stay runs counter to the Clean Air Act (CAA) even if petitions for rule reconsideration are pending.

As they seek to stall legal challenges, critics of EPA’s rule rolling back Obama-era chemical disaster safety mandates are urging the agency to reconsider the measure, arguing in administrative petitions that officials “cherry pick[ed]” new data, ignored significant continuing chemical accidents and relied on new rationales.

OSHA and labor unions are opposing building industry groups’ call to sever and transfer the sector’s lawsuit over agency beryllium standards from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to the 8th Circuit, which has stayed a long-pending challenge from other industry groups over the agency’s standards.

A federal appeals court has rejected a hospital’s challenge to a penalty OSHA imposed under its General Duty Clause authority for not adequately addressing workplace violence, while sidestepping the hospital’s claim that the agency should instead have issued a rulemaking to address workplace violence rather than a citation.

A court-appointed attorney is backing a finding by OSHA’s independent review panel that raised the bar for when the agency can cite a company for “repeat” violations for workplace safety rules and impose strict penalties, rejecting an agency challenge to the finding as ignoring the facts of the case and as moot because no remedy is possible.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has finalized a rule narrowing its definition of when contractors and franchisees are “joint employers” subject to labor safety and other laws, over the objections of worker safety advocates who fear the plan could increase risks to many employees by hindering OSHA's ability to enforce safety requirements.

Building industry groups are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to grant their request to shift pending litigation over OSHA’s beryllium worker exposure rule to the 8th Circuit, arguing that their claims in the suit are substantially similar to other industry challenges to the rule in that circuit.