Rulemaking

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of OSHA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for a nationwide heat danger standard, setting the stage for what stakeholders expect to be a preliminary request for input that will inform the standard-setting process.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has started stakeholder meetings on OSHA’s upcoming emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, and several industry groups tell Inside OSHA they have used their sessions to raise concerns on implementation and recordkeeping requirements in the rule.

OSHA has sent its hotly-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine emergency temporary standard (ETS) for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, signaling the administration could soon enact its mandate for large private-sector employers to set strict vaccination requirements for their workers.

The country’s largest nurses’ union is calling on OSHA to step up enforcement of its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for healthcare, arguing that a recent survey of hospital conditions shows widespread noncompliance with key provisions of the ETS, including on testing and protective gear, in its first month of implementation.

Two workplace legal experts say OSHA’s forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine rule appears likely to pass “constitutional muster” based on current legal precedent but warn that if litigation over the issue reaches the high court its outcome could be less certain if the conservative majority decides to reexamine those prior decisions.

OSHA has released four new regulatory interpretation letters that clarify requirements for companies' safety data sheets (SDS) under the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), including new guidance on labeling variant products and lithium-ion batteries even as the agency is weighing a broader overhaul of the standard itself.

Retail industry groups are asking OSHA to address a variety of “vital concerns” in its COVID-19 vaccine rule, warning that President Joe Biden’s plan raises questions on how the agency will consider issues like employee classifications, exemptions and testing costs, and are further seeking a 90-day phase-in period to ease those challenges.

Industry attorneys say they expect OSHA’s forthcoming rule on COVID-19 vaccination to offer employers the “option” of mandating vaccines for workers rather than offering weekly tests as an alternative, among other potential details they say are likely based on statements from President Joe Biden and agency officials.

OSHA is strengthening enforcement and outreach “to better protect heat-exposed workers” as part of a larger “multi-prong” initiative from the Biden administration to combat heat-related illness, after worker-safety and environmental groups pressed the White House for action following this summer’s record-setting heat waves.

Legal scrutiny of OSHA’s pending vaccine mandate is ramping up, as Arizona’s attorney general has filed what appears to be the first suit to block the rule while unions that challenged the agency’s earlier COVID-19 standard for the healthcare sector are suspending that suit to consider how the agency’s new policy will affect it.