What is OSHA? OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, exists to ensure that workers in the U.S. have safe and healthy working conditions. Its main goal is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths by setting and enforcing standards, as well as providing education, training, and assistance to employers and employees.

What is the OSHA Walkaround Rule? The OSHA Walkaround Rule refers to a key part of an OSHA inspection process, where OSHA compliance officers (inspectors) conduct a physical examination of a workplace to identify potential safety or health violations. In 2024, OSHA proposed to amend its Walkaround Rule allowing representatives to accompany OSHA inspectors during an inspection. The new rule would effectively permit union representatives to accompany OSHA inspectors in non-unionized workplaces, as well as other such as plaintiffs’ attorneys and community organizers who do not have relevant expertise to aid in a safety and health inspection.

Why the OSHA Walkaround Rule Amendments Matter to Franchising? The proposed amendments to the OSHA Walkaround Rule broadly expand the purpose of an OSHA site inspection—to confirm workplace safety—by including union representatives and plaintiffs’ attorneys who have no experience in or authority to conduct safety inspections. IFA supports narrowly tailored rulemaking by the federal agencies within the boundaries of their authority granted by Congress and supported by a robust rulemaking record. OSHA’s proposed amendments to the Walkaround Rule are neither.

OSHA Walkaround Rule Challenge. The IFA Law Center, together with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations and trade associations, challenged OSHA’s Walkaround Rule amendments in Texas federal court, citing OSHA’s lack of authority to issue the amended Rule, failure to comply with required rulemaking procedures to demonstrate through a rulemaking record that the benefits of the Rule outweigh the costs of compliance, and the Rule’s violation of employers’ constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment.

Related Resources

• Summary Judgement Motion
• Appendix to Summary Judgement Motion
• Plaintiff’s Reply in Support of Summary Judgement
• Civil Cover Sheet
• Complaint for Declaratory Judgement