By Adam R. Young, Michael L. DeMarino, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: The Illinois General Assembly has been working on a marijuana legalization bill this session.  The Senate Bill would protect employer rights to ban marijuana and discipline employees for use.  Across the country, states are moving to legalize medical and recreational marijuana.  In states that legalize recreational marijuana, employers and drug testing services have seen significant increases in positivity rates for…

By James L. Curtis, Daniel R. Birnbaum, Patrick D. Joyce, Matthew A. Sloan, and Adam R. Young Seyfarth Synopsis: The growth of the gig economy has transformed the modern workforce and upended traditional models for developing a workplace safety culture and worker safety training.  New and inexperienced workers confront evolving safety hazards.  Given this transformed environment, employers must address safety hazards proactively or face OSHA citations or other liability. By 2018,…

By James L. Curtis and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: A Democratic lead House subcommittee has proposed a large budget increase for both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The Democratic budget proposal would allocate more than $660.9 million for OSHA in fiscal year 2020 – around $103 million more than the Trump administration’s proposed budget for the Agency. The White House’s proposal had OSHA slated for a…

By Benjamin D. Briggs, Brent I. Clark, Adam R. Young, Matthew A. Sloan, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: Compliance with industry standard for combustible dust set for September 2020.  Don’t delay, because OSHA is already citing employers using the not yet effective NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust. According to a 2018 report from the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), over the previous eleven years, there were…

By James L. Curtis, Mark A. Lies, II, Adam R. Young, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis: Health care providers are increasingly called upon to address drug resistant medical cases such as Candida auris (C. auris), an emerging multidrug-resistant fungus that presents a serious health threat to health care employees.  Health care employers need to ensure that employees are being adequately protected from potential hazards, such as C. auris. News sources are reporting mysterious…

By Jeryl L. Olson and Andrew H. Perellis Seyfarth Synopsis: USEPA published an Interpretive Statement (dated April 12, 2019), which according to the Agency “clarifies” that releases of pollutants to groundwater from a point source are “categorically excluded” from Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting requirements.  According to the Agency, the exclusion applies regardless of whether the groundwater is hydrologically connected to surface waters. The Interpretative Statement has been widely published;…

By James L. Curtis, Benjamin D. Briggs, Brent I. Clark, Adam R. Young, and Craig B. Simonsen Seyfarth Synopsis:  The DOL Inspector General recently issued an audit report that “OSHA Procedures for Issuing Guidance Were Not Adequate and Mostly Not Followed,” Report No. 02-19-001-10-105 (March 28, 2019). The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regularly issues Standard Interpretations, Memoranda, and Safety and Health Information Bulletins to explain its positions…