Cal/OSHA has issued updated guidance clarifying how construction employers must protect workers performing dry abrasive blasting under California’s recently amended lead standards.

The National Association of Manufacturers is calling on OSHA to rescind the agency’s rule on worker walkaround representation, as well as reconsider a proposed heat rule and “allow for further input from affected industry stakeholders.”

With President Donald Trump now in his second term, several changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are anticipated based on his previous administration’s approach, current policy signals, and the broader deregulatory agenda he has championed. Here’s what we expect.

It’s fair to say that U.S. workplace protection efforts are in disarray, with renewed Republican pressure to disband the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and OSHA’s own efforts to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI orders. The latter led to the agency’s public flub after key documents were taken offline simply because they used newly forbidden keywords. 

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published the 2024 workplace injury and illness data. The 2024 data was collected from OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA) and includes data from more than 370,000 OSHA Form 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses reports. The data has been augmented with partial data from more than 732,000 OSHA Form 300 Logs of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses and Form 301 Injury and Illness Incident Reports. The remainder of the data is currently being checked to ensure it does not contain any personally identifiable information and will be made public when the review is concluded.

The state is lessening one compliance headache for business owners. On March 30, the state’s Department of Consumer and Business Services announced that “In line with updated public health guidance from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), Oregon OSHA will rescind its COVID-19 requirements for all workplaces and employer-provided housing beginning April 3, 2023. “

Safety experts warn that employers should still prepare to manage workplace safety conditions during extreme temperatures this summer despite the Trump administration’s freeze on rulemaking that took effect in January.

With the spring tornado season ramping up, OSHA is calling on employers to develop an emergency plan, learn the warning signs, and monitor tornado watches and warnings.

On March 27, 2025, the Kentucky General Assembly enacted House Bill 398 (HB 398), which will significantly impact the regulation of workplace safety and health in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. HB 398 aligns Kentucky safety regulations with federal workplace safety standards, which many believe are less protective than the set of state-industry-specific regulations currently in place in the state. Three days earlier, on March 24, 2025, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshar vetoed HB 398 citing concerns over the bill’s impact on worker safety. On March 27, the Commonwealth’s House and Senate each met the simple majority required to override Beshar’s veto.