On August 31, 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration published interim final rules that will help protect workers who voice safety, health, and security concerns. The regulations, which establish procedures for handling worker retaliation complaints, allow filing by phone as well as in writing and filing in languages other than English. To view the complete rule click here. The regulations, which cover workers filing complaints in the railroad, public transit, commercial motor carrier, and consumer product industries, also create greater consistency among various OSHA complaint procedures. The interim final rules establish procedures and time frames for handling complaints under the whistleblower sections of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 and the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. These regulations are effective immediately. Comments must be submitted by Nov. 1, 2010, and can be sent to www.regulations.gov, the Federal eRulemaking Portal, or by mail or fax.OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the OSH Act and 18 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various commercial motor carrier, airline, nuclear power, pipeline, environmental, railroad, public transportation, securities, and health care reform laws. New fact sheets on these statutes and additional information will be available at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.For questions and comments, please contact Kevin Cannon at cannonk@agc.org.
In 1998, OSHA's expert Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH) established a workgroup to develop recommended changes to the current standard for cranes and derricks. In December 1999, ACCSH recommended that the Agency use negotiated rulemaking to develop the rule. The Cranes and Derricks Negotiated Rulemaking Committee (C-DAC) was convened in July 2003 and reached consensus on its draft document in July 2004. In 2006, ACCSH recommended that OSHA use the C-DAC consensus document as a basis for OSHA's proposed rule, which was published in 2008. Public hearings were held in March 2009, and the public comment period on those proceedings closed in June 2009. Details on the changes to the final rule from the proposed rule are available here.
Department of Labor Publishes Final Rule Regulating Cranes and Derricks in Construction
H.R. 5663, The Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010, was recently introduced in response to the tragic mine accident in West Virginia. However, the legislation also seeks to make drastic changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) by turning back the clock on well over 15 years of progress in improved workplace safety and creating a more adversarial relationship between employers and OSHA. The bill focuses solely on introducing vague new standards for criminal liability and imposes complicated and costly procedures for adjudicating whistleblower cases.H.R. 5663 should be opposed for the following reasons:• Workplace injury, illness and fatality rates are at all time lows thanks to the 15-year long bipartisan approach to workplace safety started by the Clinton Administration. H.R. 5663 will hamper continued construction industry safety improvements through increased litigation and discouragement of cooperative relationships.• Most companies are in fact not "bad actors." This legislation would create vague new standards for criminal conduct and establish new penalties that will likely lead to more costly litigation.• The legislation would allow OSHA inspectors to order a work stoppage at a jobsite without showing imminent danger or affording employers with proper due process.• H.R. 5663 creates a new and unnecessarily complex whistleblower paradigm.Action Needed:Please take a minute and use the tools on the AGC Legislative Action Center to write your elected officials in opposition to H.R. 5663.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has scheduled two additional stakeholder meetings, one in Washington, D.C., and one in Sacramento, Calif., to solicit comments in developing the Injury and Illness Prevention Program proposed rule. These additional meetings are part of a series of five.
WASHINGTON – OSHA announced today that the Severe Violators Enforcement Program directive is effective June 18th. The agency announced in April that it was implementing the program to focus on employers who continually disregard their legal obligations to protect their workers.OSHA’s SVEP focuses enforcement efforts on employers who willfully and repeatedly endanger workers by exposing them to serious hazards. The directive establishes procedures and enforcement actions for the severe violator program, including increased inspections, such as mandatory follow-up inspections of a workplace found in violation and inspections of other worksites of the same company where similar hazards or deficiencies may be present.The directive explains that the SVEP is intended to focus enforcement efforts on employers who have demonstrated recalcitrance or indifference to their OSH Act obligations by committing willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations in one or more of the following circumstances: a fatality or catastrophe situation; in industry operations or processes that expose workers to severe occupational hazards; exposing workers to hazards related to the potential releases of highly hazardous chemicals; and all egregious enforcement actions.Visit the Severe Violator Enforcement Program directive for more details.Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to assure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
OSHA is confirming the effective date of June 15, 2010 for the direct final rule requiring employers to notify their workers of all hexavalent chromium exposures. The rule revises a provision in OSHA's Hexavalent Chromium standard that required workers be notified only when they experienced exposures exceeding the permissible exposure limit. Workers exposed to this toxic chemical are at greater risk for lung cancer and damage to the nose, throat and respiratory tract.Occupational exposures to hexavalent chromium can occur among workers handling pigments, spray paints and coatings containing chromates, operating chrome plating baths, and welding or cutting metals containing chromium, such as stainless steel. Workers breathing hexavalent chromium compounds in high concentrations over extended periods of time may risk developing lung cancer, irritation or damage to the eyes and skin.OSHA requested public comments on the revised requirement in a March 17, 2010, Direct Final Rule and accompanying Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This was done in response to a Third Circuit Court's decision that the agency failed to explain why it departed from the proposed rule that would require notifying workers of all hexavalent chromium exposures. The Agency received no significant adverse comments, therefore it is proceeding with the Direct Final Rule and withdrawing the accompanying Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.Visit OSHA's Safety and Health Topics page on Hexavalent Chromium for more information on protecting workers from exposure to this chemical.
The AGC Safety Management Training Course (SMTC) provides attendees three days of training on the basic skills needed to manage a company safety program in the construction industry. It will be held in Philadelphia, PA from September 21 - 23, 2010.The program prepares attendees to manage the key safety issues on the job site and provides techniques for delivering basic safety training to field personnel. For details, please click on the following link:http://www.agc.org/cs/event_details?eventId=2199