Emerson Electric Co., et al. v. Superior Court of California, Orange County, et al.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. § 651 et seq., authorizes the Secretary of Labor to set mandatory federal occupational safety and health standards, and the Act generally preempts any state law or regulation on which a federal safety standard has been established. Gade v. Nat’l Solid Wastes Mgmt. Ass’n, 505 U.S. 88 (1992). Congress gave the states the option to “assume responsibility for development and enforcement” of occupational safety standards once the state has submitted, and the Secretary has approved, “a State plan for the development of such standards and their enforcement.” 29 U.S.C. § 667(b). “[I]n the absence of the approval of the Secretary, the OSH Act pre-empts all state law” regulating worker safety issues covered by federal standards. Gade, 505 U.S. at 107. Although the Secretary has approved California’s state plan, it is undisputed that the use of the state’s general unfair competition laws as supplemental enforcement mechanisms for workplace safety standards “was not mentioned in the plan’s enforcement provisions.” App., infra, 14a. The question presented is: Whether the Occupational Safety and Health Act “preempts all state occupational safety and health laws” relating to issues covered by federal standards “unless they are included in the state plan,” as the Ninth Circuit has held, Indus. Truck Ass’n v. Henry, 125 F.3d 1305, 1311 (9th Cir. 1997); or whether a state may employ supplemental enforcement mechanisms for workplace safety standards even if not included in the state plan, as the Supreme Court of California held in this case. (I)