>This> week as most people focused on their daily activities the new Congress decided to blame OSHA for record unemployment. According to the new Congress OSHA is a job killing organization that should be de-funded. See Video of Congressional Hearings Here. (Click on Archived Webcast)
Is this a political “Witch-hunt”? Several Republican Congress members aligned with the Chamber of Commerce feels that OSHA is punishing employer’s verses creating common sense policies that promote prevention.
To quote Representative Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican “It has become an administration more focused on punishment than prevention,” said Walberg, chairman of the a member of the committee who was elected last year. “I am concerned with recent actions that suggest the administration has shifted the balance toward punishment and taken its sights off commonsense rules that promote prevention.”
It’s quite apparent that these Congress folks do not work in the real world of employee safety. Over the last, forty years we have had common sense rules to protect employees on the job yet 12 employees die every day as a result of injuries they sustain at work. Over 3 million employees are injured on the job every year and now we have Congressional leaders attempting to water down the last hope that employees have – regulatory compliance.
Let’s not forget where we came from, decades of injuries and deaths without any regulation or justice for injured employees or their families. Do we want to say to employee – you’re hired so we can kill you on the job? Employers have moved beyond this, but Congress seems bent on rolling back the hands of time.
I do not think that OSHA is a perfect organization but I shudder to think where we would be if they were not around. I walk into organizations every day – many of them would care less about employee safety if OSHA mandates didn’t hang over their head. Do I think that OSHA over reaches – NO – In some instances they don’t go far enough! At the end of the day we want employees to return to their families safely every day or night – no job is worth dying for. Prudent safety regulations must be maintained and compliance requires education, inspections and fines. Some companies don’t get the safety message until it hits their bottom-line.
The OSHA Director Issued the Following Press Release as a Rebuttal to the Congressional Assault:
WASHINGTON – Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, today issued the following statement as the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce holds a hearing on “Investigating OSHA‘s Regulatory Agenda and Its Impact on Job Creation.” Michaels understands the committee’s interest in examining the relationship between OSHA’s regulatory agenda and job creation. The Labor Department is focused on doing everything possible to support the creation of good, safe jobs.
“I think we can all agree that the American economy must succeed but never at the cost of the safety or health of American workers. OSHA’s goal is to ensure that everyone who goes to work returns home safely. I think we can also agree that the size of a business should not determine the level of protection that a worker receives. All workers have the same right to a safe workplace.
“Despite concerns about the effect of regulation on American business, there is clear evidence that OSHA’s commonsense regulations have made working conditions in this country today far safer than 40 years ago when the agency was created, while at the same time protecting American jobs. The truth is that OSHA standards don’t kill jobs. They stop jobs from killing workers. OSHA standards don’t just prevent worker injuries and illnesses. They also drive technological innovation, making industries more competitive.
“Many OSHA standards cost little and easily can be adopted by employers with nominal effect on the bottom line. OSHA, by law and by practice, always looks at both the overall cost of compliance with a proposed regulation and at the expected benefits. The evidence shows that OSHA generally overestimates the cost of its standards. Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment, comparing the predicted and actual costs of eight OSHA regulations, found that in almost all cases ‘industries that were most affected achieved compliance straightforwardly, and largely avoided the destructive economic effects’ that they feared. Standards intended to protect workers from cancer-causing chemicals such as vinyl chloride and ethylene oxide were shown to not only protect workers but also to increase productivity. OSHA’s trenching standard has significantly cut the death rate for construction workers, and OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard has almost eliminated work-related cases of hepatitis B and HIV.
“The failure to issue sensible regulations endangers not only workers’ health and safety but also hurts American competitiveness. For example, because OSHA has a weak noise standard and weak enforcement, U.S. employers have no incentive to buy modern, quieter machines, which means that U.S. manufacturers don’t build them, and there are few jobs in the U.S. for engineers who could design them. A recent study by the National Academy of Engineering concludes that European manufacturers are way ahead of us in designing and building modern, quieter machinery. Today, when businesses anywhere in the world want to buy quieter equipment, they look not to the United States but to Europe.
“As we approach OSHA’s 40th anniversary, the agency’s success has been well documented. An estimated 14,000 workers were killed on the job the year that Congress created OSHA. That number had fallen to approximately 4,340 in 2009. At the same time, U.S. employment has almost doubled and now includes more than 130 million workers at more than 7.2 million worksites. Since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the rate of reported serious workplace injuries and illnesses has declined from 11 per 100 workers in 1972 to 3.9 per 100 workers in 2008.
“But OSHA’s job isn’t over. More than 3 million workers in America are injured every year. Every day 12 workers die on the job. OSHA’s commonsense regulations are helping to drive these numbers down and, at the same time, helping American businesses modernize and compete in the global economy.”
Twitter
Skype