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ARTICLE · 31 JULY 2025

Changes In Enforcement Of General Duty Clause

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Possibly in response to the Supreme Court's decision ending the Chevron doctrine, and in line with broader efforts to limit regulatory authority...

United StatesEmployment and HR
Jane Heidingsfelder
Jane Heidingsfelder

Possibly in response to the Supreme Court's decision ending the Chevron doctrine, and in line with broader efforts to limit regulatory authority, OSHA is expected to narrow its application of the general duty clause.

The general duty clause requires employers to provide a workplace free of recognized hazards not addressed by a specific standard.

OSHA wants to exclude hazards that are "inherent and inseparable from the court nature" of job. While the agency cites examples like extreme sports and animal handling, the proposed change is not limited to those sectors. This shift could also have far-reaching implications for industries such as emergency response, where some risks are intrinsic to the work and cannot be fully eliminated without fundamentally altering job functions.

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