What Should Employers Expect From New OSHA Head

With the nomination of David Keeling to be the Trump administration’s pick to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, lawyers Kristin White and Todd Logsdon have highlighte seven changes that employers should expect as OSHA reshapes its inspection and enforcement priorities.
Among the seven, the Fisher Phillips lawyers led their list with the predictions that electronic injury reporting rules may be rolled back and public data releases will likely end.
“The status of OSHA’s electronic recordkeeping rule has flip-flopped back and forth over the past decade — and it’s time for another swing of the pendulum under Keeling’s leadership,” they wrote in a piece for Law360.
To be ready for the changes, the lawyers advised employers to review company safety programs, audit company recordkeeping and monitor regulatory updates.
READ MORE

The Florida Senate is advancing a bill that would permit some 14- and 15-year-olds to work overnight shifts and would eliminate blocks on 16- and 17-year-olds working before 6:30 a.m. and after 11 p.m. during the school week.
SB 918 would allow teens as young as 14 to work overnight if they’ve graduated from high school or received a high school equivalency diploma, or within the compulsory school attendance age limit and hold a valid certificate exemption issued by the school superintendent or their designee.
As well, the bill would remove a requirement for a 30-minute meal break when 16- and 17-year-olds work for eight hours or more in a day but maintain it for workers 15 and younger.
It also would remove a restriction that bars minors from working more than eight hours in a day when school is scheduled the next day.
READ MORE

ISN’s latest Serious Injury & Fatality Insights (SIF) white paper has found there is a growing emphasis on Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), a safety philosophy that shifts the focus from worker behavior to focus on the processes in place designed to protect the worker.
The report examines more than 132,000 recordable incidents from 2017 – 2023, and reveals a 16% decrease in SIF cases from 2022 to 2023, the lowest total since 2017.
The white paper’s analysis found contact with objects or equipment remains the top incident category, comprising 60% of injuries in the six-year survey period.
In 2023, 90% of amputations affected hands, fingers, or wrists, consistent with OSHA’s severe injury trends. These injuries are often linked to unguarded machinery and improper use of high-risk equipment.
READ MORE