Attorneys say employers should be ready to quickly resume compliance with a host of Obama-era OSHA policies linked to its contentious electronic reporting rule, including anti-retaliation measures that barred many workplace safety incentives, as the agency prepares to propose a new version of the regulation as soon as December.

OSHA has reworked a long-standing “interpretive rule” to specify that proving whistleblower retaliation requires showing that protected activity was the “but-for” cause of an employer’s discriminatory action, based on several recent Supreme Court decisions the agency had already incorporated into less-formal guidance.

OSHA has reworked a long-standing “interpretive rule” to specify that proving whistleblower retaliation requires showing that protected activity was the “but-for” cause of an employer’s discriminatory action, based on several recent Supreme Court decisions the agency had already incorporated into less-formal guidance.

Worker-safety and environmental groups are seeking alternative paths to a comprehensive emergency temporary standard (ETS) for heat illness including a push for state-level policies, citing concerns that OSHA lacks the staff or resources to quickly craft such a rule alongside its top priority of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) raises the already-high bar OSHA must clear to cite employers for a willful violation of its noise exposure standard, holding that the agency must go beyond showing that an employer had a heightened awareness of the standard.

A new Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) raises the already-high bar OSHA must clear to cite employers for a willful violation of its noise exposure standard, holding that the agency must go beyond showing that an employer had a heightened awareness of the standard.

OSHA’s nationwide suicide-prevention training initiative for the construction sector could build a record to support for formal guidance or even enforcement action, several employers’ attorneys tell Inside OSHA, though they say the agency is likely to face an uphill battle if it does pursue that path.

OSHA’s nationwide suicide-prevention training initiative for the construction sector could build a record to support for formal guidance or even enforcement action, several employers’ attorneys tell Inside OSHA, though they say the agency is likely to face an uphill battle if it does pursue that path.

OSHA’s deputy regulatory chief told an Aug. 31 conference the agency plans to let its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) expire after a six-month window, noting that while future developments could lead officials to reverse course, its plan “at this point” is to allow the rule to sunset before proposing a permanent disease rule.

OSHA’s deputy regulatory chief told an Aug. 31 conference the agency plans to let its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) expire after a six-month window, noting that while future developments could lead officials to reverse course, its plan “at this point” is to allow the rule to sunset before proposing a permanent disease rule.