A More Aggresive OSHA
November 9th, 2009
With the new Administration in Washington and a Democratic dominated Congress, OSHA is becoming more and more aggressive in developing new standards, standard enforcement, and proposing higher penalties for standard violations. With the appointments of Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Acting Assistant Secretary of Occupational Safety and Health Jordan Barab the message is clear, the enforcement of the standards is a priority for the new Administration.In June at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ Conference Ms. Solis stated: ” There is a new Sheriff in town…Make no mistake about it, the Department of Labor is back in the enforcement business. We are serious, very serious.” To understand what we are in store for, you need look no further than Ms. Solis’ background.
Ms. Solis is a former member of Congress from California. She also served in the California Assembly and worked in the Office of Hispanic Affair’s during the Carter Administration. She is known for her support of organized labor and has written, co-written, or supported several bills that expand the governments role in areas of immigration, union support, and worker’s safety and health enforcement. Her father was an Union Steward for the Teamsters in Mexico and played a pivotal role helping the Teamsters organize the Quemetco Battery Plant in California.
The Deputy Assistant Secretary and current acting head of OSHA is Jordan Barab, who previously served as special assistant to the head of OSHA in the Clinton administration.
Again a quick look into Mr. Barab’s background will give an indication of what is in store. As the special assistant to the head of OHSA he helped spearhead the promulgation of the controversial ergonomics workplace safety and health standard that was issued by OSHA but subsequently repealed by Congress. Barab was a health and safety specialist for the AFL-CIO from 2001 to 2002, and directed the safety and health program for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) from 1982 to 1998. In a speech at an AFSCME convention, he remarked, “I always tell people that I still bleed AFSCME green.” In another speech, he told attendees, “You are not alone. We have your back and your fight is our fight…There’s a new sheriff in town.”
President Obama has nominated David Michaels, PhD, MPH, to be the head of OSHA. At this time his nomination has not been confirmed by the Senate. Michael’s is currently a research professor at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. He is the author of the book Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health. In the Clinton administration, Michaels served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety and Health. In that position, he was the chief architect of an initiative to compensate nuclear weapons workers for occupational illnesses resulting from exposure to radiation, beryllium and other hazards. Key goals of Michaels would be to jump-start OSHA’s standards-setting process, with a particular focus on chemical exposure issues and ergonomics. In an editorial, the Washington Times characterized Michaels as a “virulently anti-business epidemiologist.” Given the new OSHA’s agenda and the OSHA-head nominee’s past pointed criticisms of industry, the confirmation hearings will provide early proof of the heated battles that will be fought on the OSHA front during the Obama administration.
Deborah Berkowitz has been named chief of staff at OSHA. Berkowitz is the former health and safety director at the United Food and Commercial Workers’ union, and she was very active for the union during OSHA’s first round of ergonomics cases in the meatpacking industry in the 1980s and during the Clinton administration’s ergonomics rulemaking.
Top priorities for the new OSHA
The top priority of the new OSHA can be summarized in two words: strong enforcement. This will be accomplished in several ways:
- “Severe Violators Inspection Program”. This program focuses on larger employers who have a long history of OSHA violations and have indicated through their practices that they do not take their safety obligations seriously and OSHA has determined that they need to be targeted to ensure that they start complying with the standards.
- OSHA has submitted a request to increase the number of inspectors to 130 for their 2010 Budget. They are also requiring inspectors to conduct more inspections, issue more citations and to focus on willful, serious, and repeat violations.
- Increase the dollar amount for penalties for OSHA citations
- Increase the number of criminal prosecutions for workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses.
- Focus on specific enforcement issues through the National Emphasis Program.
- Focus auditing to ensure compliance with OSHA’s injury and illness recordkeeping requirements. OSHA believes that they system, as it currently exists, is seriously flawed and as a result, wide spread cheating occurs.
- Decreasing partnership programs that the new administration believes allows for companies to sidestep day to day compliance.
What do you need to do to prepare for the New OSHA
- Establish a strong safety and health program. Ensure that your written program is not a well kept secret from your employees, but is one that is effectively implemented, your employees have a copy and understand the program, you train your employees on the hazards that they may face in the workplace and how to correct them, you have strong communication with your employees on their responsibilities and you have strong communication from your employees that identify hazards.
- Establish a Workplace Emergency and Evacuation Plan. When an emergency or catastrophe happens at your worksite how you manage the risks following the event are key to minimizing your liabilities. You need to ensure that your plan is designed to manage the incident, including the investigations to follow and can be implemented effectively at a moment’s notice.
- Have an ongoing safety audits to identify potential risks or hazards at your workplace that prevent employees exposure to a potential injury or death. Being proactive in idenfying these potential hazards will work in your favor to not only reduce your workers injuries, thus lowering your workman compensation claims, but will minimize your risk of citations from OSHA.
Being proactive with your company’s safety and health program will keep your exposure to OSHA citations to a minimum and lower your overall insurance costs, thus dropping more money to your bottom line.
