Press Releases

On April 16, 2020, OSHA issued an enforcement memo entitled “Discretion in Enforcement when Considering an Employer’s Good Faith Efforts During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.” The enforcement memo cites the challenges facing many businesses due to the pandemic and the need for enforcement officers to exercise discretion in light of the employer’s good...

During last week’s virtual town hall a question was asked regarding the requirement for fit testing for N95 respirators. If an employer makes a filtering facepiece respirator, e.g. N95, available to employees on a voluntary basis, initial fit testing is not required as long as use of the respirator does not create a hazard: Due...

The group reached the deal following days of intense negotiations after Mexico declined to endorse the original agreement reached Thursday. While the OPEC+ deal amounts to the largest coordinated cut in history, it’s dwarfed by the estimated 20 million barrels a day or greater decline in oil consumption as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”...

Looking at regional manufacturing reports for April, the Empire State and Philadelphia Fed Indexes are expected to drop to -32.0 and -25.0, respectively. The key initial unemployment claims report is expected to show another 5-6 million new claims for the week ending April 11th. Other important economic developments this week include the International Monetary Fund’s...

CPIBLS released the consumer price index last week showing the all-urban CPI was down 0.4 percent in March 2020, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the largest decrease since January 2015. This main driver was a 5.8 decline in the energy index, specifically gasoline (all types) which was down 10.5 percent. Other contributing sectors include apparel...