Chamber of Commerce clash on OSHA and EPA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) administrator and U.S. Chamber of Commerce attorney differed aggressively on the value of a bill that would mandate more rigid penalties for employers’ workplace safety violations.
The Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA) would crucially update the OSH Act, giving its regulations some dentition and putting it on an equality with every other federal safety law, according to David Michaels, OSHA Administrator at hearing before the House Subcommittee on Workplace Protections March 16.
“The criminal penalty provisions of the OSH Act have never been updated since the law was enacted in 1970, and are weaker than virtually every other safety and health and environmental law,” OSHA Administrator said.
Mr. Michaels mentioned a case in 2001 in which OSHA penalized the proprietors of a refinery $175,000—the utmost allowed under the OSH Act—for the death of an employeer whose body virtually disbanded in the blowup of a tank of sulfuric acid. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) penalized the refinery $10 million for the deaths of thousands of fish and crabs in the same explosion.
But Washington attorney Jonathan L. Snare who’a representing the Chamber of Commerce, reasoned out that increasing punishments for workplace accidents would do nothing to assistant small business employers who scramble to understand their responsibilities under the OSH Act.
“This employer is obviously better served with more outreach and compliance assistance materials than increased penalties. Again, the goal here is compliance and prevention, not sanction. This approach benefits employers, but more importantly it benefits employees,” Chamber of Commerce attorney testified about OSHA and EPA penalties.
