The Occupational Safety and Health Administration held a meeting of its National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health on Jan. 10 to hear updates from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Jim Frederick and a report from NACOSH’s Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Work Group.

On Jan. 5, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission released the text of a soon-to-be-published proposed rule banning non-compete clauses in employment contracts that is expected to impact one in five U.S. workers—or 30 million Americans. The proposal makes it an unfair method of competition under the Federal Trade Commission Act for an employer to enter into or attempt to enter into a non-compete clause with a worker, to maintain a non-compete clause with a worker or to represent to a worker that he or she is subject to a non-compete clause.

On Dec. 20, the U.S. Senate released the text of its 4,000+ page fiscal year 2023 omnibus funding bill to avoid a potential federal government shutdown on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Louisiana v. Biden, has blocked the Biden Administration from enforcing his COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Indiana after the court found that President Biden overstepped his authority.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration announced a public meeting of the Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship on Jan. 12, 2023, focused on youth apprenticeship and finalizing the priorities for the upcoming year. Specific agenda items include remarks from ETA leadership and other apprenticeship stakeholders, a youth apprenticeship panel, insights regarding youth apprenticeship site visits, subcommittee reports regarding the “Strategic Framework” and “Year Two Focus,” and public comments.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced plans to hold an online meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health on Jan. 23, 2023, from 2 to 4 p.m. EST.

SWACCA’s public policy team is pleased that another multi-year advocacy campaign has ended in success. Since the summer of 2020, SWACCA has been at the forefront of an effort with its allies in the Construction Employers of America and its union partners to reverse regulations that negatively altered the analysis trustees of ERISA plans must use when assessing plan investments.

As California works to finalize a permanent COVID-19 worker protection rule, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health declined to include a provision in the rule requiring employers to pay workers who take virus-related time off.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation released its List of Plans in Special Financial Assistance Application Priority Group 6, which consists of plans for which PBGC projects a present value of financial assistance payments under section 4261 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that would exceed $1 billion in the absence of SFA. The application period for Priority Group 6 plans is scheduled to open on Feb. 11, 2023.

In Nov. 15’s Federal Register, the U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing, through two separate notices, waivers to the “Buy America Domestic Content Procurement Preference” for construction materials as applied to recipients of federal financial assistance. These waivers would apply to all DOT-assisted programs for infrastructure (i.e., not just those funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) across all DOT component agencies.