OSHA
OSHA Proposes Expanding Electronic Recordkeeping Rule to Add Smaller Employers
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published a proposed rule to restore and expand Obama-era requirements for high-hazard employers with at least 100 employees to submit their injury and illness forms electronically to the agency. In 2016, OSHA promulgated an electronic recordkeeping rule, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses Rule, which required…
Read MoreIntersection of ADA, COVID-19 Requires Creative Reopening Policies, EEOC Official Says
The EEOC has received hundreds of charges involving both COVID-19 vaccination and the ADA, according to Evangeline Hawthorne, the agency’s Tampa field office director. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has received thousands of charges related to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. As of December 2021, more than 2,700 charges were related to COVID-19 vaccines,…
Read MoreWorkforce Drug Test Positivity Climbs to Highest Level in Two Decades
The rate of positive drug test results among America’s workforce reached its highest rate in 2021 since 2001, and was up more than 30% in the combined U.S. workforce from an all-time low in 2010-2012, according to a new analysis released by Quest Diagnostics, the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services. Employers face mounting…
Read MoreOSHA Pushes Heat Standard
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has made clear that heat illness is a top priority, and the forthcoming heat exposure standard is certain to affect construction firms. The standard has been on the front burner for the Biden Administration. The then-acting assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health announced in June…
Read MoreEmployers Must Record Certain Commuting Injuries, OSHA Says
Employers must record certain commuting injuries, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said in a Jan. 4 letter, representing a shift in the agency’s interpretation of tasks that are a “condition of employment.” The Letter of Interpretation explained that an employee required to return to the workplace outside of his normal commute is engaged…
Read MoreEmployers Weigh Whether to Rescind Vaccination Policies
Now that the vaccine-or-testing emergency temporary standard (ETS) from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been withdrawn, employers that have instituted mandatory vaccination or vaccine-or-testing policies are deciding whether to stay the course or backtrack. The U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked OSHA’s vaccine-or-testing rule, an ETS that applied to employers with at least 100…
Read MoreStates Limit Employer Power to Require the Jab
With OSHA’s COVID-vaccination mandate now stayed (almost certainly forever), and the vaccination mandate for government contractors also stayed (probably forever), U.S. employers must decide whether to impose their own COVID vaccination mandates on employees. And state laws will have something to say about that. The chart below summarizes current state laws that restrict a private sector…
Read MoreAssessing Compliance Obligations with the OSHA COVID-19 Vaccine/Testing ETS After the Sixth Circuit Reinstated the Standard
On Dec. 17, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved a stay from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and reinstated OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for vaccines and testing. Essentially, the Court agreed with the Department of Labor that it had authority to issue the ETS and that the circumstances warranted an emergency…
Read MoreFederal Court Puts OSHA’s Emergency COVID Vaccination Mandates on Hold, But Private Employers Must Still Consider Next Steps
What You Should Know OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring employers with 100 or more employees to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or regular testing for employees that do not choose to vaccinate. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered the ETS unenforceable by issuing a temporary stay, which it subsequently reaffirmed and which OSHA…
Read MoreOSHA Issues COVID-19 Workplace Vaccine-or-Testing Mandate
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released its highly anticipated emergency temporary standard requiring businesses with at least 100 employees to mandate that their employees get vaccinated against the coronavirus or wear a mask and test for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis. Additionally, the White House announced the following details: All unvaccinated workers must…
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