News

ISSA LARU—ISSA Wins Prestigious OSHA Award

Welcome to the latest ISSA Legislative & Regulatory Update, a biweekly roundup of the public-policy issues currently impacting the full cleaning supply chain. This update touches on ISSA receiving a prestigious OSHA training grant, the recent release of the 2022 ISSA State Pesticide Registration Survey, and the upcoming ISSA-HCPA regulatory workshop as part of ISSA Show North America 2022, and more.

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ISSA Advocacy

ISSA Awarded OSHA Grant for Workplace Safety, Health Training on Infectious Diseases
ISSA is one of 14 nonprofits nationwide to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for workplace safety and health training on infectious diseases, including COVID-19. ISSA has been awarded US$158,957 to provide infection-prevention training to frontline workers in the cleaning industry. This includes cleaners, environmental service workers, custodians, restorers, remediators, and limited-English-proficiency workers who are linked to ISSA-member companies.

2022 ISSA State Pesticide Registration Survey Now Available
ISSA provides the State Pesticide Registration Survey on an annual basis as a benefit to our members. Each year, we compile this document with updated listings of all pesticide registration fees, renewal dates, penalties for selling unregistered pesticides, and state registration authority references. Many distributors and manufacturers now sell their disinfectant products in more states than they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, so having the most up-to-date regulatory information is more important than ever. Accordingly, the 2022 ISSA State Pesticide Registration Survey is now available for ISSA members.

Time Is Running out – Register Now for Hot Topics: Cleaning Products Workshop 2022
Ensure your continued success in the marketplace by attending the Cleaning Products Workshop, a one-day live and in-person event that will address the latest regulatory and sustainability issues along with other trending topics that impact the manufacturing, packaging, marketing, and sale of household and commercial cleaning products. This one-of-a-kind program, presented by HCPA and ISSA, features the following hot topics that will impact your business for years to come:

• Update on packaging
• News from Green Seal, EPA Safer Choice, and ECOLOGO
• Update on California Proposition 65, Short Form Warnings, and other news
• State and federal regulation of PFAS
• VOC regulatory update on states and Canada
• Microplastics and the cleaning industry

This workshop will be conducted in conjunction with ISSA Show North America 2022 on October 10, starting with breakfast at 8 am; the program runs from 9 am to 5 pm at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center. ISSA members should use the promo code “ISSA2022” when registering to receive discounted member pricing.

Legislative

Bipartisan Legislation Introduced to Require Ingredient Labeling for Menstrual Products
U.S. Representatives Grace Meng (D-NY) and Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) recently introduced the Menstrual Products Right to Know Act of 2022 (H.R. 8829). The bipartisan bill would require that manufacturers of menstrual products disclose on the label of their packaging the ingredients in them, so that consumers have all of the information necessary to make the best choice for their menstrual health and well-being. This would allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to classify menstrual products as misbranded if manufacturers do not comply with ingredient labeling, including for fragrance ingredients.

Regulatory

EPA Expands List of Commodity Inert Ingredients for Pesticides
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added 16 inert ingredients, many of which are used in the formulation and manufacturing of cleaning products, to the agency’s Commodity Inert Ingredients List. The EPA’s additions are intended to reduce regulatory burden and increase supply chain flexibility while maintaining existing human health and environmental standards under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

Tentative Railway Labor Deal Reached, Strike Averted
Rail companies and their workers reached a tentative agreement to avert a nationwide strike that could have shut down the nation’s freight trains and devastated the economy less than two months before the midterm elections, AP News reported. President Joe Biden announced the deal, which emerged from a 20-hour negotiating session at the U.S. Department of Labor and came one day before the threatened walkout. The deal, which includes a 24% pay raise, will go to union members for a vote after a cooling-off period of several weeks.

NLRB Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Joint-Employer Standard
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) addressing the standard for determining joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. The NPRM proposes to rescind and replace the joint-employer rule that took effect in April 2020. Under the proposed rule, two or more employers would be considered joint employers if they “share or codetermine those matters governing employees’ essential terms and conditions of employment,” such as wages, benefits and other compensation, work and scheduling, hiring and discharge, discipline, workplace health and safety, supervision, assignment, and work rules. The NLRB proposes to consider both direct evidence of control and evidence of reserved and/or indirect control over these terms and conditions of employment when analyzing joint-employer status. Comments regarding the proposed rule must be received by the NLRB on or before November 7, 2022.

USTR Continues China 301 Tariffs
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) confirmed that representatives of domestic industries benefiting from the tariff actions in the Section 301 investigation of China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation requested continuation of the tariffs. Accordingly, the tariffs did not expire on their four-year anniversary dates and USTR will proceed with the next steps as provided by statute. Americans for Free Trade, of which ISSA is a member, stated the following regarding this USTR tariff continuation announcement: “USTR’s announcement–released late in the day heading into a holiday weekend–failed to provide transparency into the continuation requests it has received, offered no insight into Phase 2 of the review process, and provided no guidance for those who oppose the tariffs to weigh in.”

US Labor Chief: No Sign of Strike, Lockout in West Coast Port Talks
U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said that he sees no signs of a strike or a lockout looming in the contract negotiations between dockworkers and employers at some of the nation’s most important ports, even as talks continue without a contract, according to Bloomberg News. The parties reached a tentative agreement on health benefits, signaling progress in carving out a new contract for employees at key US maritime locations, including the nation’s largest ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. However, despite the tentative health-benefits agreement, the parties to the West Coast port negotiations have yet to make significant progress on other issues, and an unrelated security-guard strike may impact some terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The administration continues to keep a close eye on these negotiations and is in weekly conversations with the relevant parties.

SBA Program Helps Women Entrepreneurs Access Federal Contracts
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), and American Express have announced the return of the government contracting education initiative for women, ChallengeHER, Atlanta Small Business Network reported. The initiative will help women-owned businesses learn how to compete for and win federal contracts. It will also give them the resources and support needed to grow their businesses.

US Inflation Appears More Persistent
US inflation is showing signs of entering a more stubborn phase that will likely require significant action by the U.S. Federal Reserve, a shift that has impacted financial markets and heightens the risks of a recession, according to AP News. Some of the longtime drivers of higher inflation–spiking gas prices, supply chain snarls, soaring used-car prices–are fading. However, underlying measures of inflation are worsening.

Judicial

Court Partially Reinstates Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate
The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals partially reinstated President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, but still exempted seven states and members of Associated Builders and Contractors from having to get the shot, Construction Dive reported.

State News

California Sues Amazon, Alleging Its Policies Cause Higher Prices
California sued Amazon, accusing the company of pushing sellers and suppliers into anticompetitive deals that lead to higher prices, including at rival online stores, NPR reported. The lawsuit, filed by state Attorney General Rob Bonta, focuses on the way that Amazon deals with third-party merchants, who account for most of the sales on the platform.

Minimum Wage to Appear on Nebraska’s November Ballot
A proposal to raise Nebraska’s minimum wage to US$15 an hour will appear on the state’s November ballot, according to AP News. The Nebraska Secretary of State office announced that it had verified enough signatures to place the issue before voters in the general election. The proposal would increase the minimum wage to $15 hourly by 2026. The first incremental increase would increase it to $10.50 an hour in January 2023. The state’s current minimum wage is $9 an hour, $1.75 more than the federal hourly minimum wage of $7.25. Petition organizers said that the measure would raise wages for an estimated 150,000 workers in Nebraska.