House Committee Passes OSHA Bill
On Wednesday, the House Education and Labor Committee passed the Miner Safety and Health Act. This bill seeks to make significant changes to both MSHA and OSHA. The vote was 30-17, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans opposed. AGC is a strong advocate of worker safety but is concerned about the direction of the bill. The legislation turns the clock back on well over 10 years of progress in improved workplace safety, which has lead to a nearly 50 percent reduction in the construction fatality rate, by creating a more adversarial relationship between employers and OSHA.
The bill does nothing to help facilitate worker safety on a site or help businesses, especially small businesses, improve their worksite safety. Instead, the House proposal focuses solely on introducing vague new standards for criminal liability and imposes complicated and costly procedures for adjudicating whistleblower cases. This legislation is ultimately a punitive measure, and does not promote injury prevention. This approach fails to take into account the construction industry's successful accident prevention strategies that have resulted in reducing workplace injury, illness and fatality rates through the successful efforts of business and government working together. Instead it will hamper continued construction industry safety improvements through increased litigation and discouragement of cooperative relationships. Supporters of the bill are pushing to have a vote on the House floor next week, though the final schedule has not been released. The Senate is taking a slower approach on the bill and it is uncertain as to when a hearing might be scheduled. Please click hereto send a letter to your Representative and Senators about your concerns with this legislation. For more information, contact Kelly Knott at (202) 547-4685 or knottk@agc.org.