Workplace Safety and HealthBlog Posts
U.S. Supreme Court Puts OSHA COVID-19 Vaccine-Or-Test ETS Back on IceIn a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has granted a temporary stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). To read this article in its entirety, please click here.January 13, 2022 |
SCOTUS Questioning Suggests OSHA ETS is Squeezing an Elephant into a MouseholeThe U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the OSHA ETS case. Of course one never knows how the Court will rule, but if the Justices’ questions are any indication, there could be a 6-3 split in favor of a stay, with Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, and...January 7, 2022 |
OSHA Withdraws COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard, Vows to Use General Duty ClauseThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced that it is withdrawing most of the Emergency Temporary Standard for healthcare employers (Healthcare ETS) it promulgated more than six months ago. To read this article in its entirety, please click here.December 29, 2021 |
After OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard for Healthcare Employers Expired …More than six months after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgated an Emergency Temporary Standard for healthcare employers (Healthcare ETS), OSHA announced its intentions to propose an infectious diseases standard covering all industry sectors in April 2022. The agency said the new standard will address airborne, droplet, and non-bloodborne contact diseases. To read the article...December 27, 2021 |
Supreme Court to Consider Arguments on Pulling Plug on OSHA COVID-19 ETSThe U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled expedited arguments on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s decision to lift the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). To read the article in its entirety, please click here.December 23, 2021 |
Sixth Circuit Gives Employers Lump of Coal for Christmas, Dissolves Stay of OSHA Vaccine ETSThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has lifted the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 vaccination and testing for employers with at least 100 employees. Multiple parties, including 27 states, have filed emergency motions with the U.S. Supreme Court to block...December 18, 2021 |
Will Some State Plans Defy OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination, Testing Emergency Temporary Standard?If President Joe Biden’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) vaccine or testing mandate for employers goes forward, nearly half the states have the option of going their own way. To read this article in its entirety, please click here.December 13, 2021 |
Sixth Circuit Deals Blow to OSHA’s Proposed Expedited Briefing Schedule, Says it Will Keep ETS CaseIn what is getting to be habit in the OSHA ETS litigation with courts issuing orders late Friday afternoons, the Sixth Circuit on December 3, 2021 tersely denied a petition to transfer the case back to the Fifth Circuit. In the same order, the Sixth Circuit also denied, without explanation, the union petitioners’ bid to...December 3, 2021 |
Unions Ask 6th Circuit to Transfer COVID Rule Case to D.C. Circuit; Government Opposes En Banc ReviewAs the OSHA COVID ETS saga continues to unfold, several union groups have filed a motion requesting that the 6th Circuit transfer all of the consolidated petitions to the D.C. Circuit, arguing that the D.C. Circuit is better equipped to handle the matter. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, AFL/CIO-CLC and the American...November 30, 2021 |
Petitioners Ask 6th Circuit to Hear OSHA ETS Challenge En Banc with All Active JudgesFour separate groups of petitioners challenging the OSHA ETS, including a coalition of 27 states, have asked the court to hear the OSHA challenge en banc, arguing that the case involves a question of exceptional importance in that it is an “unprecedented mandate of COVID vaccines based on a rarely used law of questionable applicability.”...November 22, 2021 |