The California wildfire smoke regulation, an emergency regulation that took effect on July 30, 2019, is scheduled to become permanent on January 28, 2020. In the wake of the wildfires that have emerged throughout California, employers may want to become familiar with the regulation’s requirements.
On October 15, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Cynthia L. Attwood to serve as a commissioner on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).
On October 9, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint Amanda Wood Laihow to serve as the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s (OSHRC) second commissioner. That addition will give the commission its first quorum in five months and enable it to decide the cases pending before it.
On July 30, 2019, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) announced that its “emergency regulation requiring employers to protect workers from hazards associated with wildfire smoke is now in effect, following its approval yesterday by the [California] Office of Administrative Law.”
The Florida legislature recently amended the “Indoor Air: Tobacco Smoke” Act, §386.202 of the Florida Statutes, to restrict indoor vaping in addition to tobacco smoking in enclosed spaces. The amended act is now known as the “Indoor Air: Smoking and Vaping” Act. The new law went into effect on July 1, 2019.
A hot-button issue in California is whether an employer is required to pay for or reimburse an employee for shoes that are required as a condition of employment. A recent ruling by the California Court of Appeal highlights the complexity of the issue and lack of concrete guidance on a critical question: whether California workplace safety law requires an employer to pay for nonspecialty safety shoes, such as generic steel-toe boots, that the employer allows the employee to wear off the jobsite.
Employers consider many factors when choosing whether to challenge investigatory subpoenas. They now have an additional consideration: whether a court might grant the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) more time to issue a citation if the employer challenges a subpoena.
On May 17, 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 880 individual cases of measles had been confirmed in 23 states across the country in 2019. According to the CDC, the current outbreak of measles represents the greatest number of cases reported in the United States since 1994 and since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.
Scott A. Mugno, President Trump’s nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, withdrew his name from consideration in a letter submitted on May 14, 2019, to the White House and to Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta.
On April 18, 2019, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board will consider an update to the regulations governing nighttime agriculture operations at its monthly meeting. In 2013, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (or Cal/OSHA) asked for a revised regulation because of prior accidents or fatalities that occurred during the darkness of nighttime agriculture operations.
The Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission is back in business as it will soon have a quorum again to decide cases. The Commission plays an important role in mine safety and health law. The Commission establishes precedential case law when it decides appeals of administrative law judge decisions in Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) cases, including citation contests and discrimination cases.
On February 27, 2019, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing on House Resolution 1309, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, introduced by Representative Joe Courtney (D-CT).
The year 2018 saw the issuance of several noteworthy federal workplace safety and health decisions.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the government agency responsible for enforcing the whistleblower retaliation provisions of numerous laws protecting workers in a wide-range of industries.
On January 25, 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published in the Federal Register its revisions to its electronic recordkeeping rules.
Here are a few of the recent developments affecting workplace safety and health law in California.
With flu season here and reported incidents of deaths caused by diseases thought to have been eradicated by vaccines on the rise, many healthcare providers are considering mandatory vaccination of employees.
In 2019, general counsels can expect the debate to rage on over the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) proposal to rescind the requirement that large employers electronically submit information from OSHA Forms 300 and 301, which contain individual employees’ private medical history data.
On November 16, 2018, Representative Joe Courtney (D-CT) introduced House Resolution 7141, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act.
Over a decade after California adopted its outdoor heat illness regulations, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) is inching closer to adopting regulations titled “Heat Illness Prevention in Indoor Places of Employment.”
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) is seeking to expand its workplace violence regulations, which currently regulate healthcare facilities, to a general industry standard, which would affect employers in all industries.
On October 9, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld a district court’s order quashing an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection warrant.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) added an anti-retaliation provision to the recordkeeping regulation finalized in May 2016, and it seems as if the workplace safety and health community has not stopped talking about it since.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) officially kicked off its National Emphasis Program (NEP) on Trenching and Excavation on October 1, 2018. With the NEP comes enhanced enforcement, education, and a new OSHA instruction related to OSHA’s trenching and excavation standards in Subpart P of the Construction Standards.
On September 27, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a notice of proposed rulemaking expanding the employment, training, and apprenticeship opportunities for 16- and 17-year-olds in healthcare occupations by removing the prohibition on teen employees operating patient lifts.
On September 28, 2018, the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) agreed with Ogletree Deakins’ argument that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) standard requiring emergency eye-flushing and body-washing facilities on construction sites is invalid.
Tennessee property owners, including employers, are generally authorized to prohibit the possession of weapons by any person at meetings conducted by an employer or on property owned, operated, managed, or under the control of an employer. Tennessee has adopted very specific requirements for how employers and other property owners must notify employees and visitors when they seek to prohibit firearms on their properties.
On July 30, 2018, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register seeking comments on a proposed measure that would partially rescind the 2016 amendments to its recordkeeping rule. The 2016 amendments required establishments with at least 250 employees, or with at least 20 employees in a high-risk industry, to electronically submit their illness and injury records to OSHA annually, beginning in 2017.
In 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) amended its recordkeeping rule to require that certain establishments electronically submit their illness and injury records annually, beginning in 2017. For the first year, covered establishments were only required to submit their OSHA Form 300A.
On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission that the former practice of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of having its staff employees appoint administrative law judges (ALJs) violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
