Workplace Safety Targeted in Watchdog’s New Virus-Oversight Plan

The U.S. Labor Department’s independent watchdog is expanding the reach of its already wide-ranging review of how multiple DOL agencies have responded to the pandemic, increasing its focus on workplace safety and unemployment insurance.

The department’s Office of Inspector General will launch probes into the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s decision to reduce workplace inspections while facing a lawsuit from meatpacking employees that asks a court to force the agency to inspect their job site, according to the watchdog’s audit plan for fiscal year 2021.

The plan, released Monday, also lists upcoming probes of OSHA’s limited use of complainant and ...