Jul 14, 2010 1:53 PM, By Sandy Smith
Members of Congress are working to link together key provisions of the Protecting America�s Workers Act (PAW Act, HR 2067), introduced last year, to mining safety and health provisions of the Mine Safety and Health Act of 2010 bill, HR 5663. The Miner Safety and Health Act would amend the OSH Act to allow for higher fines, stiffer criminal penalties and greater protection for whistleblowers in cases involving workplace safety. It also would allow victims and their families access to OSHA citations, notify them if the employer contests the findings of OSHA�s investigation and give them the right to meet with OSHA representatives.
�During the 7 months I have been the assistant secretary of OSHA, explosions at the Kleen Energy power plant in Connecticut, the Tesoro refinery in Washington State, the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, and on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico have killed 54 workers,� said Assistant Secretary of Labor � OSHA David Michaels. �We add their names to a long list of recent disasters, like the explosions at the BP refinery in Texas, Sago and Darby mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, and the Imperial Sugar plant in Georgia that killed dozens of workers and injured hundreds more.�
He noted that while those workplace tragedies made headlines, �What is not publicized are the more than 5,000 other workers killed on the job in America each year, the more than 4 million who are injured and the thousands more who will become ill or die in later years from present day occupational exposures. Every day in this country we have a Sago mine disaster, every 2 days an Upper Big Branch, and every month the loss of a fully loaded Boeing 747. These tragedies happen in every corner of the country, usually one at a time, far from the evening news and the morning headlines.�
Michaels thanked the members of the committee and the cosponsors of the Miner Safety and Health Act �for recognizing not only that the nation�s 350,000 miners desperately need better protections to prevent any more Sago or Upper Big Branch disasters, but that this nation�s 135 million workers in general industry who are covered by OSHA also need better, more up-to-date protections.�
Title VII of the Miner Safety and Health Act provides critical amendments to the OSH Act that would increase OSHA�s civil and criminal penalties, enhance whistleblower protections and victims� rights and give OSHA the authority to require abatement of serious hazards even if and while the employer contests citations issued for them.
According to Michaels, these provisions, strongly supported by the Labor Department and endorsed by the Obama administration, would enable OSHA to more effectively accomplish its mission. �Because OSHA can visit only a limited number of workplaces each year, we need a stronger OSH Act to leverage our resources to encourage compliance by employers. We need to make employers who ignore real hazards to their workers� safety and health think again.�
Federal OSHA and state plans combined have just over 2,200 inspectors, which translates to about one compliance officer for every 60,000 workers. OSHA�s resources are spread across nearly 9 million workplaces.
Higher OSHA and MSHA Fines
Michaels said he believes safe jobs �exist only when employers have adequate incentives to comply with OSHA�s requirements. Those incentives are affected, in turn, by both the magnitude and the likelihood of penalties.�
According to Michaels, OSHA�s current penalties are not large enough to provide adequate incentives, especially for large employers. Currently, serious violations � those that pose a substantial probability of death or serious physical harm to workers � are subject to a maximum civil penalty of $7,000. Willful and repeated violations carry a maximum penalty of $70,000.
�Unscrupulous employers often consider it more cost effective to pay the minimal OSHA penalty and continue to operate an unsafe workplace than to correct the underlying health and safety problem. The current penalties do not provide an adequate deterrent,� said Michaels.
Supporters of increased OSHA fines often point out that OSHA penalties, which can involve incidents where lives were lost, often fall short of those levied by agencies like EPA. For example, in 2001 a tank full of sulfuric acid exploded at an oil refinery in Delaware, killing Jeff Davis, a worker at the refinery. His body literally dissolved in the acid. The OSHA penalty was $175,000. Yet, in the same incident, thousands of dead fish and crabs were discovered, allowing EPA to assess a $10 million penalty for violating the Clean Water Act.
�How do we explain to Jeff Davis� wife Mary, and their five children, that the penalty for killing fish and crabs is so much higher than the penalty for killing their husband and father?� asked Michaels.
Increase Criminal Penalties In OSH Act
Michaels also complained that criminal penalties in the OSH Act are inadequate for deterring criminal wrongdoing. Under the OSH Act, criminal penalties are limited to those cases where a willful violation of an OSHA standard results in the death of a worker and to cases of false statements or misrepresentations. The maximum period of incarceration upon conviction for a violation that costs a worker�s life is 6 months in jail, making these willful crimes a misdemeanor. The criminal penalty provisions of the OSH Act are weaker than virtually every other safety and health or environmental law.
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