During unprecedented times, the plaintiff’s bar utilizes creative lawyering to achieve justice for our clients. In doing so, we often rely on city and state laws to supplement and fill the gaps in legal protection left by their federal counterparts. COVID 19 made that increasingly true and, in the context of workplace safety, there are a number of statutes at play that have never been more critical, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s anti-retaliation regulations and local whistleblower laws.
OSHA’s mandate is to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for employees by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance, including responding to whistleblower complaints. OSHA does this through its regulatory powers as a federal agency and state OSHA-affiliates adhering to the federal agency rules. The OSH Act itself, which created OSHA, presents a number of hurdles for workers’ rights advocates. For example, employees filing whistleblower retaliation claims under OSHA regulations have only 30 to 180 days (depending on the regulation) to file a claim. This is one of the shortest statute of limitations in the employment law arena.
In December 2020, OSHA celebrated its 50-year anniversary but, given the context of that time, it’s no wonder the celebration flew under the radar. Since the beginning of the pandemic, complaints of COVID exposure and workplace safety violations have exploded, with no...
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