Labor & Employment Law

Bigger Enforcement Hammer Saves Workers? Lives

By Mike Hall

When a worker is killed on the job because of an employer’s serious and willful violation of the nation’s job safety laws, the median penalty the employer faces isn’t time in jail–it’s a mere $3,675.

It’s time to put some real teeth and a bigger enforcement hammer into the Occupational Safety and Health Act, (OSH Act), witnesses told a House hearing today. In prepared testimony URL TK), AFL-CIO Safety and Health Director Peg Seminario asked the House Workforce Protections subcommittee

What kind of message does it send to employers, workers and family members, that the death of a worker caused by a serious or even repeated violation of the law warrants only a penalty of a few thousands dollars?  It tells them that there is little value placed on the lives of workers in this country and that there are no serious consequences for violating the law.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) has sponsored a bill, Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2067), that would increase OSH Act civil and criminal penalties for the first time since 1990. Says Wollsey:

Congress needs to put teeth into these penalties so that employers are held accountable for their bad behavior and no longer view penalties as a part of the cost of doing business.

Along with increasing the amount of civil penalties, including setting minimum fines, the bill establishes a penalty of up to 10 years in prison for an employer–including top executives–for criminal behavior that results in the death of a worker.

Not only haven’t the penalties that most safety and health experts termed too weak to begin with not been increased in two decades, inflation has eaten 40 percent of their real dollar value. In addition, says Seminario:

The maximum civil penalties [$7,000 for a "serious" violation] provided for under the OSH Act are rarely assessed. Indeed, just the opposite is the case. In FY 2009, the average penalty for a serious violation of the law was $965 for federal OSHA and $781 for the state OSHA plans combined. Again this is the average penalty for violations that pose a substantial probability of death or serious physical harm

Some 5,000 workers a year are killed on the job, 50,000 die from occupational disease each year, and millions of others become seriously ill or injured. Tougher penalties and stronger enforcement will “save lives,” says David Michaels, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

Jobs cannot be good jobs unless they are safe jobs. Stronger OSHA enforcement will save lives. 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.

Click here for complete testimony of all witnesses and a video archive the entire hearing. Visit the committee’s YouTube page for shorter segments.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 16, 2010 (boomark / email).