A federal appellate court recently struck down a regulation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that requires employers to record specified work-related mental illnesses. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed the Occupational Safety and Health Act and concluded that Congress authorized OSHA to require recordkeeping for work-related physical injuries and illnesses, but not mental illnesses.
Although the OSHA rule at issue affects a relatively narrow area of workplace compliance, this ruling may have broader significance because it is one of the first appellate decisions applying the Supreme Court’s 2024 Loper Bright case. Loper Bright requires courts to independently interpret a statute rather than defer to an agency’s interpretation of it.
The Fifth Circuit’s ruling could encourage additional challenges to longstanding workplace regulations where the underlying statute does not clearly authorize an agency’s action. It also underscores that courts may invalidate existing regulations, not just enforcement actions, when they conclude an agency has exceeded statutory authority.
Click here to read more from the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association.