Opinion ID: 219017
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: OSHA's Authority to Prohibit Workplace Practices

Text: The NMSA takes issue with OSHA's statement in the VTL Standard that it  permits VTLs of no more than two empty containers. Pet'r's Br. 35 (emphasis in brief) (quoting 73 Fed.Reg. at 75,246). OSHA, according to the NMSA, lacks statutory authority to permit or ban workplace practices, arguing that OSHA can regulate only how workplace practices are performed, not what workplace practices are performed. OSHA's unquestioned authority to ensure safe workplace practices, however, includes the authority to prohibit unsafe practices. See 29 U.S.C. § 655(b) (authorizing OSHA to promulgate, modify, or revoke any occupational safety or health standard); id. § 652(8) (`[O]ccupational safety and health standard' means a standard which requires conditions, or the adoption or use of one or more practices, means, methods, operations, or processes, reasonably necessary or appropriate to provide safe or healthful employment and places of employment.). OSHA might be stymied in its responsibility to require certain practices if it could not also prohibit noncompliant practices.