With online companies dominating the transportation and delivery sectors, the rise of contracting jobs is at an all-time high, though the trend is raising concerns about how OSHA will address the growing number of workers classified as “independent contractors” who are not covered under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is criticizing President Donald Trump's rollback of certain OSHA worker safety and other labor protections during his first year in office, teeing up potential issues Democrats plan to raise as the 2018 midterm elections loom.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer's (D-NY) recent call for OSHA to establish a system to notify first responders when a local company is cited for serious violations involving flammable materials is drawing criticism from both labor and industry officials who are raising doubts about its effectiveness in increasing safety.
The Trump administration is touting an increase in OSHA inspections in fiscal year 2017, the first uptick since 2012, despite a former Obama OSHA official's claims that declining agency resources are harming workplace safety, a trend the official expects to continue despite the Trump Labor Department's (DOL) lifting a freeze on hiring inspectors.
Top Democrats are warning that a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) who recently joined a majority decision to reverse the board's Obama-era ruling that expanded OSHA enforcement by broadening the definition of a “joint employer” had a potential conflict of interest, signaling a continuing challenge to the decision.
An industry attorney says that a recent OSHA settlement with a New York recycling company resolving violations of the agency's bloodborne pathogens standard suggests the agency is expanding its interpretation of the standard despite the Trump OSHA's shelving Obama-era plans for a rule bolstering protections against the risk.
The poultry industry is downplaying a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that urged OSHA and other agencies to step up scrutiny of worker safety in the sector but nevertheless indicated it would continue to make improvements in its safety practices.
Labor groups are urging OSHA to bolster inspections and training aimed at limiting harms to disaster relief workers after a study they conducted found that 85 percent of day laborers who worked in hurricane-impacted areas reported receiving no training for the worksites they were entering and more than a third of all workers in post-Harvey Houston reported being injured on the job.
The Senate on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) has scheduled a Dec. 5 confirmation hearing for Scott Mugno, the FedEx safety executive tapped by the Trump administration's to lead OSHA.
New Jersey officials say the Department of Justice's (DOJ) input may be warranted after their criticism of an EPA-administered reporting law in the state's defense against environmentalist and labor groups' lawsuit seeking release of industrial facility data, in a case that could have broad implications for public disclosure of facility data.