The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and environmental groups are suing to compel the Trump administration to finalize EPA’s Obama-era proposed ban on use of methylene chloride in paint strippers, claiming that the June 2016 revised toxics law requires the agency to protect workers from unreasonable risks.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is urging the Trump administration to ensure that EPA’s final rule banning use of methylene chloride in paint strippers protects workers by covering most commercial uses, fearing that the agency is likely to rely on a proposed training program in lieu of a comprehensive ban on the substance’s paint-stripping uses.
House Democrats have reintroduced and expanded legislation seeking to strengthen the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act by covering additional workers and bolstering protections for whistleblowers while also enhancing penalties, though an employers’ attorney suggests the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate or reach the president’s desk.
A federal district judge is ordering the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) to issue within one year a final rule requiring chemical facilities to report their accidental releases, backing health and public interest groups’ claims that CSB has unreasonably delayed the rule that could inform worker protections and is mandated by law.
The Trump administration has dropped planned rollbacks of Obama-era EPA pesticide rules intended to provide farmworkers with similar protections to workers in industries regulated by OSHA, part of a deal with Democratic senators to win confirmation for the Trump administration’s pick to lead EPA’s toxics office.
Labor supporters are warning that the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) plan to narrow its definition of when contractors and franchisees are “joint employers” subject to labor laws is unlawful, adding to their concern that the proposal could limit OSHA's ability to enforce worker safety requirements.
The Supreme Court is facing calls to end its long-standing precedent deferring to OSHA and other agencies' interpretations of their own rules, with a critic's opening legal brief urging the justices to scrap the “egregiously wrong” precedent because it allows regulators to change rules on a whim without notice-and-comment rulemaking.
Worker safety advocates are targeting states with high populations of temporary or contract workers to push for legislation strengthening their safety and other protections, using blueprints from recently approved measures in several states that focus on worker safety and create a path for the so-called gig workers to become permanent employees.
White House officials have approved a final OSHA rule rolling back an Obama-era measure that requires employers to upload injury and illness data online rather than keep the data on a work site, clearing the way for an almost certain lawsuit that critics say has been bolstered by a prior challenge to agency efforts to delay the 2016 rule's implementation.
Environmentalists fear a proposed EPA training program to limit commercial exposures to methylene chloride in paint strippers hints at a retreat from an Obama-era plan to prohibit the use outright, suggesting the agency will instead finalize a scaled-back ban that will allow some paint-stripping uses of the chemical despite potential risks to workers.