Last week, Representative Lynn Woolsey introduced H.R. 2049, the "Protecting America's Workers Act". Senator Ted Kennedy has introduced the bill, S. 1244, in the Senate. The House Committee on Education and Labor's Subcommittee on Workforce Protections recently held a hearing on H.R. 2049 titled "Have Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Standards Kept up with Workplace Hazards?"
This legislation is supposed to "reform" OSHA by increasing civil and criminal penalties for certain OSHA violations. In reality, this legislation would revert back to the failed OSHA policies of the 1970s.
The wrongly named "Protecting America's Workers Act" is bad for small business!
- This bill arbitrarily increases fines on employers.
- The bill arbitrarily increases civil penalties and imposes new criminal penalties which could land an employer in jail if a serious accident or death occurs.
- Even if an employer was to do everything possible to prevent a workplace accident, s/he could still end up in jail.
- The new, untested definitions in this bill are vague and ambiguous.
- The bill makes it more likely that small businesses will have to hire an attorney to deal with the expanded OSHA enforcement actions.
- NFIB will fight big government's attempts to create new criminal penalties that would seek to punish employers rather than assist them to create safer workplaces.
- This bill makes employers subject to more workplace inspections.
- It gives employees expanded powers to call in an OSHA inspector.
- Unions could use these unsubstantiated complaints as a reason to organize a non-union small business.
- In addition to employees, non-employees and competitors are given an unfair opportunity to issue complaints with OSHA.
- This bill requires employers to pay for an employee's personal protective equipment.
- This provision hits small contractors especially hard, who would be forced to buy equipment like special tools, hard helmets or even personal respirators for every employee.
- Employers would be required to buy the equipment for all employees and risks losing money and the equipment if an employee decided to quit.
- The NFIB Legal Foundation has submitted comments to the Department of Labor regarding a separate proposed rule change that would make this a mandatory requirement of all employers.
- This bill expands OSHA and gives them the ability to investigate claims instead of the Justice Department.
- The bill requires OSHA to investigate all safety complaints, even those from non-employees.
- This bill expands OSHA's coverage to some federal and state employees.
- By expanding OSHA, it simultaneously opens the door to organized labor and gives unions one more step in their efforts to organize small businesses.
NFIB will continue to stand up for small businesses and their rights as employers, and to shield them from obtrusive federal government regulations.
