Empowering workers is the focal point of the U.S. Department of Labor's fall regulatory agenda, according to a news release.
“As we enter 2022, the Department of Labor is continuing our efforts to empower workers morning, noon and night,” Assistant Secretary for Policy Raj Nayak said in a statement.
The Biden-Harris administration issued a semi-annual agenda of regulations "aimed at creating more ladders to the middle class, increasing equity in the workforce and ensuring safe and health workplaces," the news release said.
The agenda provides a list of all regulations and "ensures public engagement in the process of establishing regulations under active consideration by the Department of Labor during the coming one-year period," the agency said.
The changes involve mine safety, improved tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses and COVID-19 testing and vaccination among other areas.
Another deals with exposure limits to miners of a substance, crystalline silica, that can cause respiratory disease.
"These miners can develop lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and various forms of pneumoconiosis, such as silicosis, progressive massive fibrosis and rapidly progressive pneumoconiosis," a summary of the regulation says. "These diseases are irreversible and may ultimately be fatal."
