President Joe Biden promised to aggressively enforce all workplace laws during his campaign for the presidency. His direction to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to double its number of inspectors and increase workplace inspections is a significant indication of the administration’s commitment to this promise.
There has been little evidence of any widespread OSHA activity thus far, likely because the new OSHA head, Doug Parker, was only confirmed by the U.S. Senate in early November. Another reason for the current lack of increased enforcement is that much of the DOL/OSHA staff has been limited due to COVID restrictions. The bulk of the staff is not scheduled to return in-person until January 2022. Though currently facing challenges in court, the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring employers with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccination among their employees could mean further scrutiny on America’s workplaces.