Federal authorities are seeking the dismissal of a business coalition’s lawsuit against a new rule that allows union representatives to enter workplaces during government inspections.

Earlier this year, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration approved its “walkaround” regulation, under which union workers and other third parties can join the agency’s inspectors on job site visits at the request of employees.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 11 other business groups filed a lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality, but OSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor claim have now asked a federal judge to reject those claims as unfounded.

“The walkaround rule does not affect any taking of private property,” according to the government’s dismissal motion.

The plaintiffs argued the regulation is barred under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2021, which determined California violated the property rights of farmers by allowing union organizers onto their land for up to 120 days per year.

However, the federal government argues its walkaround rule falls under an exception to that ruling, which allows reasonable government searches under “traditional common law privileges to access private property.”

The federal government claims the exception applies to the walkaround rule because “OSHA must show administrative probable cause and obtain a warrant to proceed with the inspection” if an employer objects to the visit.

The third-party representatives cannot “use inspections for their own purposes” and can be blocked from site visits if their “conduct interferes with a fair and orderly inspection,” according to the government.

Under other legal precedents, allowing third parties to accompany federal inspectors does not alone represent an unconstitutional government taking of property, the government said.

“Indeed, federal courts have confirmed that the presence of a civilian to aid a law enforcement search does not render an otherwise lawful government search unreasonable,” the motion said.

Apart from the merits of the case, the government claims the business groups lack standing to pursue their complaint in federal court because they won’t suffer “a certainly impending injury” from the regulation.

Businesses aren’t directly regulated by the OSHA rule, which instead pertains to their employees’ “right to designate a representative” to assist the agency during inspections, according to the government.

“The rule does not create or alter any legal requirements for employers, and does not require compliance by employers,” the motion said.

In enacting the walkaround regulation, OSHA said the rule allows employees to alert inspectors to particular problems that they’re more comfortable relaying through a chosen representative, among other issues.

The business coalition argued that OSHA has historically limited such representatives to other employees, rather than union workers and third parties without specific industry expertise.

By allowing “union organizers to access non-union workplaces,” the walkaround regulation “aims to politicize health and safety inspections,” according to the coalition’s complaint.

“But that is not all it does,” the complaint said. “The rule also will give plaintiffs’ attorneys a front-row seat on inspections to ferret out potential opportunities for litigation against employers.”