Arizona State OSHA Plan to Remain, OSHA Says
OSHA announced that it will be withdrawing the proposal it placed last year.
- By Alex Saurman
- Feb 15, 2023
After hosting the Superbowl, Arizona has one more thing to celebrate this week: its state OSHA plan will remain in place.
Almost a year after OSHA announced that it was proposing to reconsider or revoke that state’s plan, the agency announced yesterday that this proposal is being withdrawn, according to a news release.
Arizona’s state plan, originally approved in June 1985, came under scrutiny due to what OSHA called “nearly a decade-long pattern of failures,” including not adopting penalty levels and various standards, like the COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard.
OSHA sought comments on the proposal and extended the original deadline by over a month. At the end of the comment period, The Industrial Commission of Arizona and its sub-agency, the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, commented about changes that were made, which include adopting standards, addressing penalty levels and “authorizing adoption of an emergency temporary standard when either OSHA or the Industrial Commission of Arizona determines that grave danger criteria are met,” per OSHA.
OSHA mentioned that Arizona has been performing fewer inspections, though this will not affect the agency’s decision “as these were not part of OSHA’s April 2022 Federal Register notice.”