With Biden's ETS deadline looming, feds find OSHA compromised worker safety | Dump Trucks Charlotte NC
Columbus Ohio Dump Truck Company Brief:
- On-site workers are at increased risk for COVID-19 because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is not providing the level of oversight needed to keep them safe, according to a recently issued report from the U.S.
Dump Trucks Columbus OH Insight:
Specifically, the IG recommended that:
- OSHA prioritize very high and high-risk employers for COVID-19-related on-site inspections, particularly as businesses reopen and increase operations.
- Track remote inspections retroactively to Feb. 1, 2020, and continue tracking them.
- Compare remote inspections to on-site inspections in regard to the frequency and timeliness of inspectors identifying and ensuring abatement of worksite hazards.
- Analyze and determine whether establishing an infectious disease-specific emergency temporary standard is necessary to help control the spread of COVID-19 on worksites.
The IG included OSHA’s written response to its recommendations; the agency said it accepts the recommendations and is working on all of them.
During former President Donald Trump's administration, OSHA pushed back against suggestions — and even legal action — that it develop an emergency temporary standard for COVID-19, arguing that public health guidance was continually evolving. The AFL-CIO took the agency to court to try and force it to develop a standard, but the union's legal challenge failed.
On his first full day in office, President Joe Biden ordered OSHA to reconsider whether an emergency temporary standard for COVID-19 is necessary, and if so, to issue one by March 15.
Attorney Phillip Russell with Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart doesn't discount the possibility that the IG's report is also a political shot.
"This is the present-day DOL telling the DOL in a former administration it should have done more," he said.
In fact, Virginia Democrat Rep. Bobby Scott, chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, this week issued a press release stating that he had been asking the Labor Department to issue an emergency temporary standard for a year and that the IG's report "reveals the consequences of the Trump administration’s inaction."
For employers, Russell said, the turn toward an increased on-site OSHA presence could mean a few things — less negotiating, more citations and more litigation.
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