Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

On July 1, the US federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published proposals to revise or repeal more than two dozen of its occupational safety and health standards. OSHA justifies many of these changes as ways to reduce duplicative requirements or increase employers’ flexibility. The remainder of this note identifies these proposals, identifying code sections within OSHA’s General Industry standards (most in 29 CFR 1910 (most proposals also apply to analogous Construction and Maritime standards). 

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Tags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Compliance Safety, RegulatoryUpdates, Workplace Safety Guidelines, Risk Management, Safety Standards, EHS Compliance

On February 26, the European Union’s (EU’s) European Commission issued its “Omnibus I” proposal to “recalibrate” the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), by reducing reporting requirements and excluding smaller entities.  The CSRD was adopted in November 2022 and took effect in January 2023 (I wrote about it HERE), providing reporting requirements that are being phased in during 2024-2028. CSRD superseded and narrowed the EU’s previous Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD; which I discussed HERE). The remainder of this note discusses the proposed changes. 

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Tags: CSRD, ESG, Hazardous Material, RegulatoryUpdates, Risk Management, Sustainability Reporting, EU Regulations, Sustainability Strategy, Corporate Sustainability, EU Compliance

Many regulatory laws provide for civil – and sometimes even criminal – penalties for noncompliance. Statutes set penalty levels (“XXX dollars per day of violation” for example), at levels intended to provide meaningful deterrence and punishment for noncompliance. But over time, these penalties' stings decline with inflation. To counteract the possibility that less painful penalties reduce incentives for compliance, U.S. law directs most federal agencies to make annual “cost of living” adjustments to the maximum statutory civil penalty levels (there are no provisions for standing periodic adjustments to criminal penalties). 

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Tags: OSHA, EPA, regulatory registers, RegulatoryUpdates, EnviromentalCompliance, EHSCompliance