Recent Projects – OSHA

In these comments, we urge the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to finalize its proposed heat protections for workers (the Proposed Rule). OSHA’s analysis shows that the Proposed Rule is cost-justified and will result in significant health and safety benefits, particularly among groups more likely to labor under high heat conditions like workers of color, low-income workers, and workers lacking immigration status, as well as people more vulnerable to high-heat conditions like pregnant people or people with pre-existing health conditions. 

We filed joint comments to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) in response to its advance notice of proposed rulemaking Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings. We advised that OSHA develop a heat standard that will be robust to climate impacts, provided recommendations on costs and benefits to consider in the economic analysis for the rule, and encouraged OSHA to use other facets of its statutory authority to complement its rulemaking efforts.

The Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), which directs large employers to require COVID-19 vaccines or testing, represents an important step toward reducing the virus in the workplace. While the agency offers numerous compelling justifications for the proposed rule, this comment highlights several additional rationales regarding the legislative and regulatory history of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act. A blog post on the issue by comment co-authors and NYU Law students Nina Henry and Alex Jonlin is available here.

In public comments to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, we highlight some critical problems with the agency’s cost-benefit analysis in its proposed revocation of standards to protect workers from exposure to beryllium. These ancillary standards were designed to protect workers in the construction and shipyard sectors.

The Obama Administration is poised to improve worker safety by establishing a nationwide Injury and Illness Prevention Program. But unless it is well designed, the program will leave too many vulnerable to unsafe work conditions.