By James L. Curtis, Brent I. Clark, Adam R. Young, Patrick D. Joyce, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: Frederick will take over as the No. 2 official at OSHA, after having already spent 25 years as the top investigator at the United Steelworkers union’s health, safety, and environment department. In that job Frederick pressed for new safety standards on a number of issues, including workplace violence, according to a union news release.
According to a United Steelworkers news release, James Frederick will serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), purportedly following three decades of occupational safety experience, including 25 years in the USW’s health, safety, and environment department.
Also selected is Joseph T. Hughes Jr., who will serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Pandemic and Emergency Response for OSHA. Hughes was previously the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Worker Education and Training Program, which provided grants to unions, companies and nonprofits to train rank-and-file workers on occupational health and safety.
Given Frederick’s union background, we anticipate that he will pursue the traditional labor priorities in occupational safety and health law, as we had previously predicted the Biden Administration would adopt.
For more information on this or any related topic, please contact the authors, your Seyfarth attorney, or any member of the Workplace Safety and Health (OSHA/MSHA) Team.