Democrats Call for Adequate Funding, New Enforcement Tools for OSHA
WASHINGTON – At a hearing entitled “Protecting America’s Workers: An Enforcement Update from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA),” Democratic members of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections learned from the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, Dr. David Michaels, that OSHA has very limited resources to inspect the typical job site. In fact, at the agency’s current funding levels, they would only able to inspect a site once every 140 years. The House Republicans’ proposal to slash OSHA’s enforcement budget by 15 percent would make the problem even worse.
“Budget constraints are making it difficult for OSHA to hire the inspectors it needs to adequately inspect job sites and monitor violations,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson (FL-24), Ranking Member Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. “In my home state of Florida, there are so few inspectors that they can visit each job site only once every 256 years. It would be unconscionable to cut $32 million from OSHA’s already meager budget. I hope that we can instead work together to strengthen and improve the OSHA Act and honor our pledge as lawmakers to ensure that American workers are both safe and protected.”
Dr. Michaels also testified to the additional tools OSHA needs to better protect workers. For example, the OSHA Act’s penalties have not been updated to account for inflation since they were last increased in 1990. OSHA also needs additional resources to better protect workers from retaliation when they blow the whistle on unsafe working conditions; to require employers to promptly correct hazardous working conditions rather than delay protections while citations are being litigated; and to enhance penalties to hold employers accountable for violations that cause death or serious injury to workers. These and other reforms are in H.R. 2090, the Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA).
“OSHA has identified areas where legislative updates to modernize the OSHA Act could have significant impact in further improving protections for workers,” said Dr. Michaels, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health. “The most serious obstacle to effective OSHA enforcement of the law is the very low level of civil penalties allowed under our law, as well as our weak criminal sanctions. OSHA’s current penalties are not strong enough to provide adequate incentives.”
The cost of work-related injuries and illnesses to the economy is estimated to be $250 billion per year. Workplace injuries and illnesses also significantly contribute to the pressing issue of income inequality by forcing working families out of the middle class and into poverty, and keeping the families of lower-wage workers from entering the middle class. OSHA needs to be fully funded to keep workers healthy, safe and earning the income needed to support their families.
The full testimony of David Michaels, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, can be found here.
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