Senate Bill Promotes Employee Fines and New Initiatives

12/14/2005

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-WY, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee) introduced a legislative package on November 18 to expand partnerships between OSHA and the nation's business community and better combat workplace injuries that plague about four million workers each year.

The bills would authorize OSHA to implement new, voluntary safety initiatives that will provide relief from the inspect and fine enforcement mindset that has dominated federal regulation of workplace for decades. The measures expand upon the workplace safety programs developed by Enzi and introduced previously in the Senate as the SAFE Act (the 'Safety Advancement For Employees Act').

'Cooperation, not confrontation is essential in making our workplaces safer. The notion that employers care little about worker safety, or are prepared to sacrifice worker health in the pursuit of profit is a dangerous myth,' Enzi said Friday.

'In fact, most employers are concerned for the welfare of their employees and are fully prepared to comply with laws aimed at enhancing their safety on the job. This package of bill will provide employers new opportunities to protect their important assets - hard working employees,' he added.

The Enzi bills include innovative programs encouraging businesses to tap compliance assistance available through OSHA and reduce workplace injuries through preventive safety efforts that involve both employers and employees. While encouraging voluntary compliance efforts, the bills will reward business with temporary waivers from fines when they seek advice on correcting safety hazards from properly-certified consultants. Four senators are original cosponsors of the full package of three bills, including Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), and Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

That innovative approach to workplace safety will help maximize the ability of the limited number of OSHA inspectors, currently about 2,400, to cover over seven million worksites thereby preserving the agency's resources to pursue serious safety violations. At current inspection rates, nearly 170,000 OSHA inspectors would be needed to inspect all U.S. work sites just once a year. The bills also include targeted benefits for small businesses that allow small entities to recoup attorney's fees from lawsuits in which they prevail against the government following an OSHA claim. The Enzi bills introduced Friday include:

The Occupational Safety Partnership Act - S. 2065

The vast majority of employers are committed to establishing and maintaining a safe workplace. Therefore, it makes little sense to perpetuate a system built largely on inspections and fines.

Any practical approach to addressing the issue of workplace safety must be designed to encourage and assist employers in achieving this end, not merely punish them for failing to do so. This bill contains a number of provisions designed to enhance voluntary compliance, and to provide technical assistance to employers that strive to ensure the health and safety of their employees.

The bill includes provisions that achieve these goals by:

1. Encouraging employers to engage the services of highly qualified third-party safety consultants;

2. Extending the benefits of initiatives such as the Voluntary Protection Plan to smaller employers;

3. Increasing the level of government outreach and technical help to employers seeking assistance in making their workplaces safer;

4. Promoting greater understanding of workplace safety issues through a cross-training and exchange program between OSHA and the business community;

5. Removing legal barriers for employers to establish drug and alcohol testing programs designed to reduce a significant factor in workplace injuries and death.

The Occupational Safety Fairness Act - S. 2066

The regulatory power and resources of the federal government can be overwhelming, particularly to small businesses. In order for the process to be fair and regular, the playing field must be a level one, and the legitimate expectations of fairness and regularity must be met.

This bill ensures that these goals are met by:

Providing for the recovery of attorney's fees by small businesses that prevail in lawsuits against the government in an OSHA claim;

Increasing the size of the Review Commission to ensure the issuance of more timely results; no one benefits from lengthy delays in the resolution of contested claims;

Returning the Review Commission to the status of a fully independent body as envisioned in the original OSHA legislation;

Injecting flexibility into the statute by empowering inspectors to weigh the actual safety of an individual workplace over one-size-fits-all regulations, and allowing inspectors to waive penalties for non-serious violations if they are promptly corrected;

Allowing OSHA to issue citations and impose limited fines on employees that violate rules and procedures regarding the use of company-supplied personal protective equipment, because safety is everybody's responsibility.

The HazCom Simplification and Modernization Act - S.2067

Current law provides that employers must communicate workplace hazards to their employees. This is an important and appropriate goal. Unfortunately, in many respects hazard communication efforts have become so complicated that the complexity stands in the way of the original notion that employees need plain information about workplace hazards so that they can take adequate precautions to protect themselves. The process has become even more complicated by the globalization of our economy, and the fact that many hazardous substances routinely used in our workplaces originate outside our borders.

These realities are addressed in the legislation by:

Providing for the simplification of current hazard communication standards;

Creating a commission designed to review and make recommendations regarding the implementation of the United Nation's Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals, hazard communications, and a variety of related issues.

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