Employers’ attorneys and labor groups are offer contrasting legal and other strong objections to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) proposed long-term worker safety standards for COVID-19, setting up an imminent debate for the agency’s standards board on what changes -- if any -- to adopt in a final rule.

Employers’ attorneys and labor groups are offer contrasting legal and other strong objections to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) proposed long-term worker safety standards for COVID-19, setting up an imminent debate for the agency’s standards board on what changes -- if any -- to adopt in a final rule.

The discount retail chain Dollar General is telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit it will oppose OSHA’s bid to have the court enforce an “informal settlement agreement” the two sides negotiated over a $145,000 citation for allegedly unsafe conditions at an Ohio store.

The discount retail chain Dollar General is telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit it will oppose OSHA’s bid to have the court enforce an “informal settlement agreement” the two sides negotiated over a $145,000 citation for allegedly unsafe conditions at an Ohio store.

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is suggesting the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) address a raft of procedural and staffing issues in a future strategic plan as part of its “special review” of the body’s “capabilities,” along with new details on a behind-the-scenes clash that led to the resignation of its former chair.

OSHA has sent for White House review a long-delayed proposed rulemaking that the agency says is designed to “clarify the requirements” for fitting workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) in the construction sector, over three years after it first announced it was working on the changes.

Federal judges considering a rare suit under the OSH Act provision allowing workers to sue OSHA for failing to take action over an “imminent danger” raised doubts at oral argument on whether they can still provide any relief to the plaintiffs more than two years into the case, among an array of other questions on the results both sides are seeking in the appeal.

Federal judges considering a rare suit under the OSH Act provision allowing workers to sue OSHA for failing to take action over an “imminent danger” raised doubts at oral argument on whether they can still provide any relief to the plaintiffs more than two years into the case, among an array of other questions on the results both sides are seeking in the appeal.

The Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is launching a new study of the worker-safety impacts of raising line-speed caps at meat and poultry slaughterhouses, potentially reshaping long-pending suits by unions and others over prior speed waivers that a district judge scrapped for failing to consider safety issues.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has crafted first-time guidance for its 2020 accidental-release reporting rule that it says “clarifies” requirements for facilities to notify the board of releases that cause injury, death or “substantial” property damage, just a month after publishing data from the rule’s first two years of reports.