North Carolina’s Republican labor commissioner is urging Senate Democrats to end the ongoing federal government shutdown, warning that unless OSHA grants to states are restored, North Carolina will be forced to furlough safety inspectors, putting the state’s workers at risk.
Environmentalists are urging Virginia and Pennsylvania leaders to adopt state-level heat standards, pointing to record-level heat illness incidents in 2025 and the uncertainty of when, or if, OSHA will set a federal standard -- a message that could gain new traction in Virginia if Democrat Abigail Spanberger is elected governor on Nov. 4.
California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is outlining steps it is taking to improve the agency’s inspection and enforcement efforts following a highly critical state audit released in July, including actions to better document why inspections are pursued or not, conduct inspections in a timelier manner, ensure fines are properly assessed, and increase staffing levels.
South Carolina is urging the 4th Circuit to reinstate its litigation challenging OSHA’s requirement that states match annual increases to federal minimum and maximum OSH Act penalties, arguing a lower court erred in finding South Carolina’s Administrative Procedure Act (APA) claims were time-barred.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill to bar employers from relying on automated decision-making systems (ADS) to make certain employment decisions -- including those aimed at aiding worker safety -- without human oversight, but signed a measure to reduce worker exposure to crystalline silica in the stone fabrication industry.
Industry and business groups are ramping up a campaign to convince California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to veto a labor-backed bill to bar employers from relying on automated decision-making systems (ADS) to make certain employment decisions -- including those aimed at aiding worker safety -- without human oversight.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is recommending steps states should take to bolster health and safety protections for workers to lock-in current federal protections and close gaps in areas OSHA does not regulate, arguing federal worker protections are under attack by the Trump administration.
An employer advocacy group is heavily faulting California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) proposed first-time rules to protect workers from sliding and swinging gates at worksites, arguing the measures capture far too many small gates and go far beyond the breadth of coverage envisioned in a petition accepted by the agency to draft the new standards.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is partially granting two petitions seeking review of separate worker-safety rules covering residential construction worker falls and bird flu exposure, though they are rejecting requests by the petitioners for emergency standards to address their concerns.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is slated to consider at its meeting later this month two petitions that board staff are proposing to mostly reject -- one to delay implementation of federal rules to protect residential construction workers from falls, and the other to expand a standard to protect dairy and poultry workers from bird flu.