Newsline

On July 14, the U.S. Department of Labor updated its guidance on penalty and debt collection procedures, outlined in the Penalties and Debt Collection section of OSHA’s Field Operations Manual, to help minimize the burden on small businesses and increase prompt hazard abatement. The new policy expands penalty reductions for small employers, making it easier for small businesses to invest resources in compliance and hazard abatement.

On July 27, the U.S. Department of Labor announced programs from six agencies designed to help the regulated community voluntarily assess and improve compliance with federal labor laws. The programs are aimed at strengthening worker protections while reducing the risk of investigations or penalties.

On July 1, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced deregulatory efforts aimed at reversing costly and burdensome rules and spurring job creation and economic opportunity for American workers and businesses.

Joe Xavier, ABC senior director of health and safety, testified on Wednesday, June 18 before the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration in a public hearing on OSHA's Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings Proposed Rule.

On June 12, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued new guidance to federal agencies regarding implementation of project labor agreement mandates.

In a significant victory for permitting reform, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 29 issued an opinion in the case Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, establishing that federal environmental reviews must be reasonable in scope.

On May 20, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission began accepting 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 reports. The deadline to submit is Tuesday, June 24. EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas issued this bulletin about the opening of the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection process.

On May 19, ABC participated in a listening session focused on the impact on small businesses of revising the definition of “waters of the United States” subject to Clean Water Act regulation and permitting.

On May 16, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ request for a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Defense and General Services Administration’s orders seeking to exempt certain federal construction contracts from the Biden administration’s PLA mandate.

On May 1, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it will pause enforcement of the 2024 Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act final rule in current enforcement matters while the agency reviews this regulation.