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LITIGATION STATUS REPORT
December 4, 2000

As soon as OSHA signed off on its final ergonomics regulation and sent it to the Government Printing Office for publication, the business community slapped it with a series of law suits.  Even four major labor unions have filed court challenges to OSHA's decisionmaking process. 

By law, all petitions to review a final OSHA regulation must be filed within 60 days.  We expect several more petitions to be filed before that early January deadline.  The petitions provide no information about the nature of the issues to be debated in the litigation; that will be provided in initial documents to be filed in December.

The suits were filed in several different U.S. circuit courts of appeals around the country, and a multi-district litigation office decided by lot on December 1 to transfer these cases to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.  The court will prepare a schedule shortly for docketing statements, statements of the issues, motions, briefing and argument.

Attempting to comply with the new rule will seriously disrupt many businesses and threaten their ability to compete, to provide products and services, and to recover from such disruptions should the rule be declared illegal.  For these and other reasons, it is likely that employers will ask OSHA, and if necessary the court, for immediate relief from implementation of the rule until these legal challenges are resolved.

Legal experts predict that a normal appellate schedule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will result in briefing to be completed by mid-2001, with oral argument in early fall and an ultimate decision possible late in 2001 or early 2002.

For further information, contact Quentin Riegel, deputy general counsel for the National Association of Manufacturers, at 202/637-3058.