Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.
Covid-19 Rule for Fall?|IC Update|Pay Data Report Divides
Bruce Rolfsen: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported during the week ending July 17 that 30 nursing home workers died from Covid-19, the most in one week since February 2021.
The resurgent numbers, more than two years into the coronavirus pandemic, are making worker advocates anxious about OSHA’s schedule to enact a permanent rule to protect health-care employees from Covid-19 infections.
Since last winter, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has pointed to a September or October time frame as the agency’s target for enacting the rule. But doubts are surfacing that OSHA won’t meet its deadline.
One still-to-come obstacle for the rule is a mandatory review by the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The temporary version of the Covid rule was at OIRA for 42 days in 2021.
“With OIRA review required, September sure looks unrealistic and October optimistic at best,” said Randy Rabinowitz, an attorney with the Occupational Safety and Health Law Project, who is representing the AFL-CIO in a D.C. Circuit case that seeks to accelerate the rule’s release. There’s been no decision as of Aug. 5.
Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh’s comments about the rule during a Senate hearing in June added to the union anxiety.
“I believe it’ll be done in the next three to six months,” Walsh told the Senate’s appropriations subcommittee. That...
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