Labor & Employment Law

Labor Department Says Focus is on Worker Safety, Fair Wages

By Mike Hall

New rules to improve workplace safety, monitor employer compliance, track ergonomics injuries, bring union-busting consultants out of the shadows and ensure fair wages and overtime pay top the U.S. Department of Labor’s regulatory agenda.

Says Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in a video statement on the department’s website:

Protecting wages and working conditions is the key mission of our department. Insuring workers have a voice on the job is also vital….We are committed to ensuring that workers are paid a fair wage and have a voice in the workplace.

In the worker safety arena, new rules on combustible dust?such as the sugar dust that caused the explosion that killed 13 workers at the Georgia sugar plant in 2008?coal dust (click here to find out more) and airborne infectious disease such the H1N1 virus are in the pipeline.

Also, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will reinstate the rule abolished by the Bush administration in 2001 that requires employers to record workers’ musculoskeletal injuries as part of their normal illness and injury record keeping. Says OSHA Acting Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab:

musculoskeletal injuries are one of the biggest health and safety problems in this country.

But both Solis and Barab say there are no current plans to pursue a new ergonomics rule, such as the one the Bush administration successfully killed in 2001.

Also, OSHA plans a new rule covering the Bush administration’s program that relied on voluntary employer compliance with federal workplace safety rules, rather than inspections. It would allow OSHA to conduct inspections at those workplaces and also tighten other rules.

Worker safety advocates lauded the scope of the proposals but said quicker action was needed in several areas than proposed by the department’s timeline. Writing on the workplace safety blog, The Pump Handle, Celeste Monforton notes that several of the proposed rules, including exposure limits on the cancer-causing chemical beryllium and food flavoring diacetyl (linked to popcorn lung), are “long-recognized occupational health hazards” that don’t require several “of the unnecessary steps” outlined in the plan.

She adds:

Particularly disappointing is OSHA’s timeline for addressing hazards in the construction industry. Improvements to the cranes and derricks standard have been in the works since 2002, with a rule proposed last October. OSHA’s agenda indicates that a final rule shouldn’t be expected until July 2010. Surely, the administration can make a decision on the couple of sticking points on the rule (e.g., pre-emption, certification) to ensure the rule is issued sooner rather than later. OSHA fails to give us any meaningful next steps on a rule to protect construction workers from confined space hazards and exposures causing hearing loss.

Another proposed rule would require employers to disclose more information about the anti-union consultants many employers use to derail workers who want to join unions and bargain for a better life. According to the proposal:

Regulatory action is needed to provide workers with information critical to their effective participation in the workplace. When workers or union members have more information about what arrangements have been made by their employer to persuade them whether or not to join a union, this information helps them make more informed choices and acts to level the labor-management relations playing field.

In the area of workers’ wages and overtime pay, another proposed rule would update the rules covering employers’ payroll record keeping requirements and the rights of workers to access those records. The proposal says the new rules will

foster more openness and transparency by demonstrating employers’ compliance with minimum wage and overtime requirements to workers. In turn, this will better ensure compliance by regulated entities and assist the Department with its enforcement efforts.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 10, 2009 (boomark / email).