OSHA - General

On Wednesday, June 10, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a series of frequently asked questions and answers regarding the use of cloth face coverings, surgical masks, and respirators in the workplace related to COVID-19. The new guida

Have you updated your Workplace Safety and Health Program to identify and address the new hazards COVID-19 creates? If not, now is the time, as OSHA expects employers to assess their workplaces to identify the ways their workers may be exposed to the virus and establish a program that

On May 27, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) updated its guidance for employers performing construction work of all types. The agency’s guidance is not a standard or regulation, so it is not legally binding. Nonetheless, construction industry employers may want to consid

On May 19, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (the Updated Plan), providing new guidance to all OSHA Regional Administrators and State Plan Designees on how to investigate COVID-19

On May 19, 2020, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued Revised Enforcement Guidance for Recording Cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) under the agency’s recordkeeping regulation at 29 C.F.R. § 1904, providing additional information on what employers are req

On Tuesday, May 19, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued new enforcement guidance regarding an employer’s obligation to record cases of COVID-19 on the OSHA injury and illness logs.

On May 14, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a one-page guidance sheet titled “COVID-19 Guidance for Nursing Home and Long-Term Care Facility Workers.” The guidance lists several tips that employers in the nursing home and long-term care facility industry may take

On May 1, as part of Littler’s Virtual Executive Employer, attorney Alka Ramchandani-Raj was fortunate to interview Dr. John Howard, the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), to discuss NIOSH’s role in the response to COVID-19 and key safety and health issues

Many businesses either don’t understand OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard (PSM), or they don’t realize it applies to them. Once you have determined you have a covered process or on-site storage, handling and/or moving of a highly hazardous chemical (defined by 29 CFR 1910.119) at or above th

Manufacturing employees are involved in significant physical labor or with potentially hazardous material, and manufacturers are one of the most common targets of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigations, citations, and penalties. While OSHA often offers to settle penaltie

As the coronavirus situation continues to evolve, so do companies’ and governments’ approaches to monitoring and helping avoid the spread of the virus. The intensity and anxiety over this issue is extremely high in Asia, exemplified by the recent appearance of the Singapore Prime Minister asking ind

Executive Summary: With the worldwide cases of coronavirus tripling in the past week, and the eleventh case confirmed in the United States, U.S. employers are examining what necessary precautions should be taken to control and prevent the spread of the virus. Perhaps the most important step for empl

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China continues to raise not only health concerns, but issues for employers and employees. Information about the virus continues to evolve.

Employers are struggling to determine how to respond to the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, which, while originating in China, has swiftly turned into a perceived international crisis, upending financial markets, and prompting government and private-sector travel limitations and worry a

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published a new webpage that links to resources on the agency’s site about workplace safety and health issues raised by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus outbreak.

News of an outbreak of a new coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China raises issues for employers and employees about the appropriate workplace responses.

The outbreak of a new coronavirus that is believed to have began in central Chinese city of Wuhan and now appears to be spreading to the United States is driving concerns for organizations around preparedness regarding their operations, their customers, and their employees. Both the Center for Disea

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) increased its fines by approximately two percent on January 15, 2020 in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015. The DOL evaluated all of the civil penalties it administered and calculated the annual inflation adjustmen

On December 17, 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Report for 2018.

Since April of 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (“Commission”) has been a panel of one. After Chairwoman Heather MacDougall resigned from the Commission on March 31, 2019 and Commission Cynthia Attwood’s term ended in April of 2019, the Commission was left with one member,