Compliance Stuff

  A broad executive order issued in the first days of the Trump administration has indefinitely delayed a number of changes to safety standards proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration . The order prohibits federal administrative agencies from proposing or finalizing new rules, and directs them to withdraw rules sent for publication in the Federal Register. This order had an immediate effect on a number of OSHA rules, most prominently the proposed heat injury and illness standard . This rule would require employers to develop a plan to address employee exposure to high heat and humidity by providing breaks, cooling areas, drinking water, and other measures . The order also affects OSHA’s proposed revisions to its emergency response requirements . The order does not directly impact rule development in progress where no proposed regulations have been issued. The Trump administration announced its intent to eliminate a wide range of federal regulations, at one poi...

The National Labor Relations Board is appealing a Texas district court’s ruling that struck down the Board’s 2023 joint-employer rule as unlawfully overbroad. U.S. Chamber of  Commerce v. NLRB, No. 6:23-cv-00553-JCB (E.D. Tex. May 7, 2024). The rule sought to broaden the Board’s prior standard by finding two entities are joint employers when one entity possesses the authority to control at least one of seven enumerated essential terms and conditions of employment of the other entity’s employees, regardless of whether the first entity actually exercises that control. The Board is appealing the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Following the district court’s ruling, the U.S. Congress approved a resolution to reject the new rule, but President Joe Biden vetoed the resolution. The joint-employer analysis has significant implications for employers as, inter alia, it determines when one entity can be held liable for the other’s unfair labor practices and when ...