Category: Federal
Cal/OSHA Chief: State OSHA’s Budget, Staffing Increases Should Ameliorate Feds’ Concerns
California’s OSHA program will continue beefing up staffing levels and increasing overall inspection numbers, leveraging a 10 percent enforcement funding spike in the state’s newly passed budget, in what Cal/OSHA chief Juliann Sum suggests could ameliorate concerns at the federal level about the state agency’s…
OSHA Extends Confined Spaces In Construction Enforcement Date For ‘Good Faith’ Employers
OSHA has decided to delay full enforcement of the agency’s recently issued confined spaces in construction rule, giving employers that are making “good faith” compliance efforts an extra 60 days before citing them under the new standard, in a partial accommodation of industry’s request for…
OSHA Wields Corporate Settlement Talks To Tamp Down Workplace Violence Risks
OSHA has reached a milestone settlement with a corporate health care provider that gives the agency a foothold to proactively address workplace violence risks, using its negotiating powers to take on an issue that officials signal will increasingly become a federal enforcement priority in health…
OSHA Seeks White House Approval Of Final Rule Tackling Slips, Trips And Falls
OSHA is asking the White House for the go-ahead to finish a final rule aimed at heading off workplace hazards from slips, trips and falls, taking a crucial step in a 25-year regulatory effort — and moving ahead on a rule the Obama administration has…
New Hospital Safety Inspection Emphases Stem From Longtime Pressure From Advocates
OSHA’s newly rolled-out areas of emphasis for compliance officers conducting hospital and nursing home inspections — focused intently on ergonomic issues, bloodborne pathogens, workplace violence, tuberculosis and slips, trips and falls — comes after lengthy and intense pressure by health care worker advocates, particularly the…
Cal/OSHA Settles Long-Running Farm Worker Suit Over Heat Rules, Revises Regs
California’s state OSHA program has settled a long-running dispute with farm workers’ groups over enforcement of the state’s heat standards, just as new regulations become effective aimed at addressing many of the concerns borne out by the protracted litigation. The 10-year-old California heat illness prevention…
Cal/OSHA Stresses Heat Concern As Federal Officials Beat Drum Of ‘Water, Rest, Shade’
California’ state OSHA program is making a renewed push for heat illness prevention as temperatures are projected to soar in the southern region of the state, coming as OSHA simultaneously doubles down on its perennial campaign to inform employers and workers of measures to prevent…
Whistleblower Manual Update Details Policy On Punitive, Distress Damage Awards
OSHA recently issued an update to its whistleblower enforcement manual providing further depth of information to field staff on how to approach two major issues — the awarding of punitive damages and determination of emotional distress as a result of retaliation — as well as…
OSHA Allows Shipping Stocks Of Older Hazcom-Labeled Containers As New Regs Take Effect
OSHA has adopted a new enforcement policy to provide manufacturers and importers leeway to move any containers in existing stock that have already been labeled in compliance with the 1994 hazard communication rule and are prepared for shipment — a move timed just as a…
OSHA Targets September For Publication Of Controversial Recordkeeping Rule
OSHA may be only four months away from publishing a long-promised and highly controversial rule to compel employers to submit electronic records of work-related injuries and illnesses, with the September date for the rule inked in the latest regulatory agenda only a month slip from…
Industry Backs ‘Abatement Before Citation’ Bill, But Says Right To Contest Should Be Preserved
Industry advocates are voicing strong support for a measure put forth by Rep. Vickly Hartzler (R-MO) to alter OSHA enforcement by letting employers sidestep citations for non-serious regulatory violations as long as the alleged hazards are abated during a “grace period,” but there is also…
Final Rule On Confined Spaces In Construction Takes New Technologies Into Account, OSHA Says
OSHA says regulators have taken into account numerous new technologies available to building industries as it rolls out a rule adding a subpart to its construction standards to tackle confined space hazards much like the general industry regulations designed to ensure protections for workers in…
