Arizona, South Carolina and Utah stripped of workplace safety authority

Federal law allows states to have their own safety and security regulations as long as it is as good as federal standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ruled that they are working toward stripping Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah of their authority to maintain their own regulations citing shortcomings in their COVID protocols. 

This action was taken after these states failed to implement certain rules or even adopt one rule from the set of necessary workplace COVID regulations let out by OSHA in June- for example providing protective equipment. Jim Fredrick OSHA's acting director said that the organization has constantly tried to help these states, however, their consistent refusal to comply with certain safety standards is a risk to employees all over the state. Emily H Farr, the director of South Carolina's Labor Licensing and Regulations Department said that this decision is extremely disappointing and that the state's existing standards have proven effective in preventing workplace injury and other health concerns. Doug Ducey, Arizona's Governor said that they believe that they are already functioning in accordance with the new OSHA rules and had set up a mandate to evaluate the rule-making process once they were informed of the non-compliance. Governor Spencer J Cox of Utah said that they reject the ruling that their plan does not hold up to federal standards, they had allegedly previously complained to the Labor Department saying that the new rules put undue pressure on the healthcare industry. So far 28 states have OSHA-approved safety regulations, in the states without their own rules OSHA is prime authority. 

This news comes as OSHA plans to release a new rule mandating every workplace with more than 100 employees to have a vaccine mandate or conduct weekly COVID testing. 

Source: The New York Times