Systems, apparatus and methods can be implemented for handling physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions. A user equipment (UE) can decode, on a physical hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) indicator channel (PHICH), a negative acknowledgement (NACK) associated with an HARQ process. The UE can also receive, from a base station, an uplink grant without an associated transport block. The decoded NACK and the received uplink grant can trigger a respective transmission during a PUSCH transmission opportunity. The UE can then perform, during the PUSCH transmission opportunity, one of transmission of a PUSCH transmission associated with the HARQ process, transmission of control information based on the received uplink grant, or disregarding the decoded NACK and the received uplink grant.