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Potential Impact of Obama Administration on OSHA

With the long list of “emergency” issues facing the new Obama administration in 2009, even informed inside observers are not quite sure where OSHA and EPA environmental health and safety regulatory initiatives will emerge on the priority list.  As critics of the Bush administration like to point out, fewer OSHA standards have been promulgated under this administration than any of his predecessors since the OSHA Act became law in 1970.1

Conventional wisdom indicates that OSHA is generally more active under Democratic administrations.  As a result, many prognosticators expect more energetic enforcement, increased penalties, approval of new standards, and additional funding (although in the current economic crisis this may be delayed).  Since 2006 when the Democrats took control of Congress, both the House and Senate have pressured OSHA to become more aggressive in its enforcement activities.  Congress has held a number of hearings and introduced legislation intended to  encourage OSHA to issue more stringent citations and penalties on employers for violation of safety and health rules.2

Key points from an April 29, 2008 statement by Barack Obama to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Hearing.

  • “…For the past seven years, Department of Labor (OSHA) has used its regulatory authority as if its mandate was to err on the side of corporations over the public interests – even when its decision undermine the spirit of the law and puts workers’ lives at risk…”
  • “…A Democratic Congressional report entitled “Discounting Death: OSHA’s Failure to Punish Safety Violations that Kill Workers” reports that OSHA systematically imposes small fines on employers even in cases where safety violations led to a worker’s death…”
  • “…Senator Obama stated his support to strengthen OSHA’s authority regarding imposing more meaningful penalties for noncompliance and for expanding OSHA coverage for the estimated 8.6 million state and local government workers who presently lack OSHA protection…” 3

President-elect Obama has formed a team to examine Department and Labor, including OSHA, with indications that he hopes to reverse the recent practice of cutting staff and reducing funds for training, and reversing key protective standards.  He stated that he hopes to increase funding, expand training, reinstate the controversial ergonomics standard and shift OSHA’s emphasis toward enforcement of standards and away from voluntary partnerships with employers. 4

While these public statements are hopeful signs toward more effective health and safety enforcement to reduce workplace injuries, illness and deaths; economic realities may slow the progress of such initiatives.

Your professional team at GSE will be monitoring national events intently and will continue helping our public and private sector employers protect the health and safety of employees using existing standards and state-of-the-art interventions.

References:
1 blogs.hcpro.com/osha
2 washlaborwire.com/2008/11/11
3 boilermakers.org/resources/news
4 lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/24

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