Update on OSHA’s Emergency Response Rulemaking

May 24, 2024July 10, 2025Eric J. Conn Leave a comment

By Beeta B. Lashkari and Eric J. Conn

On February 5, 2024, OSHA revealed its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for a new Emergency Response Standard, initiating a public comment period. As we previously reported, the rulemaking is designed to update OSHA’s existing Fire Brigades Standard and to expand safety and health requirements related to emergency responders – both public and private.

Although OSHA extended the deadline by which comments must be filed from May 6 to June 21, that day is approaching fast, especially given the length, technical nature, and complexity of the proposed rule. To that end, we are writing to re-gauge your organization’s interest in participating in a coalition of employers and trade associations to work on this OSHA rulemaking with us.

Background About OSHA’s Emergency Response Rulemaking

Per OSHA, the proposed Emergency Response Standard is meant to replace the existing Fire Brigades Standard and will update safety and health protections in line with national consensus standards for a broad range of workers exposed to hazards that arise during emergencies. While the number of requirements will significantly increase, so too would the scope of the standard. Particularly, the existing Fire Brigades Standard would be substantially expanded to apply to Continue reading →

OSHA’s Emergency Response Rulemaking Covers Private Employers With Designated Emergency Responders – Join CMC’s Employers Rulemaking Coalition

January 29, 2024July 10, 2025Eric J. Conn 2 Comments

By Eric J. Conn, Kate M. McMahon, and Beeta B. Lashkari

OSHA is sure not letting the regulated community ease into the new year. Indeed, right as we were shutting down for the holidays, OSHA slid a little gift under the tree in the form of yet another proposed regulation. Specifically, on December 21, 2023, OSHA revealed a pre-publication proposed “Emergency Response” Rule, which it will publish any day now. The rulemaking is designed to update OSHA’s existing “Fire Brigades” standard and to expand safety and health requirements related to emergency responders – both public and private.

We are writing to gauge your organization’s interest in participating in a coalition of employers and trade associations to work on this OSHA rulemaking.

Background About OSHA’s Emergency Response Rulemaking

So you would not have to, we have poured through the 600+ page pre-publication Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) package. Per OSHA, the soon-to-be-proposed “Emergency Response” Rule will update safety and health protections in line with national consensus standards for a broad range of workers exposed to hazards that arise during and after fires and other emergencies. Particularly, the standard will apply to Workplace Emergency Response Employers (“WERE”), a term that applies to private employers engaged in industries such as manufacturing, processing, and warehousing that have, or establish, a Workplace Emergency Response Team (“WERT”). OSHA explains that employees on the WERT are those who, either as a primary or collateral duty of their regular daily work assignments, respond to emergency incidents to provide services such as firefighting, emergency medical service, and technical search and rescue. Continue reading →

Conn Maciel Carey’s 2022 OSHA Webinar Series

January 4, 2022July 10, 2025Theresa Jordan Leave a comment

ANNOUNCING CONN MACIEL CAREY’S
2022 OSHA WEBINAR SERIES

A full year into the Biden Administration, the senior leadership team at federal OSHA is set, the agency’s new regulatory agenda has been revealed, and the enforcement landscape has begun to take shape, revealing a dramatic shift in priorities, including stronger enforcement, higher budgets and more robust policies protecting workers, and a renewed focus on new rulemaking. Following an Administration that never installed an Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, relied almost exclusively on the General Duty Clause to enforce COVID-19 safety measures, drastically curtailed rulemaking, and declined to issue an emergency COVID-19 standard, the pendulum swing at OSHA has already been more pronounced than during past transitions. Accordingly, it is more important now than ever before for employers to stay attuned to developments at OSHA.

Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s complimentary 2022 OSHA Webinar Series, which includes monthly programs (sometimes more often, if events warrant) put on by the OSHA-focused attorneys in the firm’s national OSHA Practice Group, is designed to give employers insight into developments at OSHA during this period of unpredictability and significant change.

To register for an individual webinar in the series, click on the link in the program description below, or to register for the entire 2022 series, click here to send us an email request so we can get you registered. If you missed any of our programs over the past seven years of our annual OSHA Webinar Series, here is a link to a library of webinar recordings. If your organization or association would benefit from an exclusive program presented by our team on any of the subjects in this year’s webinar series or any other important OSHA-related topic, please do not hesitate to contact us.