The Washington Post is reporting that the White House deliberately delayed rules affecting worker safety, the environment and the Affordable Care Act to prevent them from causing controversy prior to the election. Reporter Juliet Eilperin cited seven current and former administration officials in a lengthy article in the post, although none were identified by name.

Among the many items on the federal government’s recently-released fall regulatory agenda are nine belonging to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Two of them are in the final stage of rulemaking.

A worker at a Maine stone-crushing plant who was fired for making safety complaints will receive $6,000 in back wages, under a settlement reached between his former employer and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

OSHA has announced a request for information seeking public comment on potential revisions to its Process Safety Management standard and related standards, as well as other policy options to prevent major chemical incidents.

A coalition of worker safety and food safety groups is urging the FDA to drop a proposed regulation that would pull government food inspectors from poultry plants and allow companies to conduct their own inspections and speed up production lines.

OSHA this week unveiled four rules it says will reduce unnecessary burdens on employers by updating or rescinding obsolete regulations and requirements. One rule updates and streamlines the standards for the use of mechanical power presses while the remaining three rules from the Employment and Training Administration rescind outdated Foreign Labor Certification regulations for the H-2A, F-1 and H-1A programs.

Occupational safety regulation needs to emerge from the 19th century concept that employers have to right to privately injure employees, and instead use the sunshine of modern public transparency to spotlight employer’s risk based safety performance.