As we reported last week, the U.S. District Court refused to dismiss a challenge to OSHA’s controversial 2013 Fairfax Memorandum, which allowed for the participation of union representatives in OSHA safety inspections at workplaces where the union did not represent the workers.   We asked at the time whether the Trump Administration would continue to defend that change in policy.  This week, we saw the first concrete evidence suggesting that OSHA is at least reconsidering and may at a minimum drop its defense of the practice.

On Monday February 13th, OSHA filed an Unopposed Motion For Extension of time, requesting an additional 30 days to file an answer to the complaint, which otherwise would have been due today, February 17th. As OSHA’s lawyers explained in the Motion, the agency stated that “the extension of the deadline for defendants to answer is necessary to allow incoming leadership personnel at the United States Department of Labor adequate time to consider the issues.”

While it may be risky to predict with assurance what the outcome will be of the incoming leadership’s assessment of the issues, there is a strong likelihood that the new leadership may abandon not only the defense of this legal challenge but that they will also return to the interpretation of the OSHA regulation allowing for an employee representative at such Safety Walkarounds until 2013. As OSHA’s own rules make clear, while employees have the right to an employee representative present, the “authorized representative(s) shall be an employee(s) of the employer,” unless “good cause is shown why accompaniment by a third party who is not an employee of the employer (such as an industrial hygienist or a safety engineer) is reasonably necessary to the conduct of an effective and thorough physical inspection of the workplace, such third party may  accompany the Compliance Safety and Health Officer during the inspection.”

With the new administration’s nomination of R. Alexander Acosta, it appears that the new incoming leadership may be taking shape at the Department of Labor.  No doubt, the question of union representation at OSHA safety walkarounds will be only one of many issues that the incoming leadership personnel at the United States Department of Labor will be taking time to reconsider.

Back to Management Memo Blog

Search This Blog

Blog Editors

Authors

Related Services

Topics

Archives

Jump to Page

Subscribe

Sign up to receive an email notification when new Management Memo posts are published:

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.