The AFL-CIO posted an open letter to Rep. Issa (R-CA) from California Labor Federation Legislative Advocate Mitch Seaman reacting to an article in POLITICO about the Congressman seeking input from companies, business groups and think tanks on federal regulation. The AFL-CIO snidely and incorrectly cited part of the article that reported the National Association of Manufacturers’ [...]
Originally posted at Shopfloor.org of the National Association of Manufacturers: OSHA formally announced in the Federal Register this morning that that the agency will be extending the comment period for their proposal to change noise abatement requirements. However, many on Capitol Hill are asking OSHA if the agency understands the impact that this proposal will have on [...]
Several major bills lately have included provisions to expand whistleblower protections for employees. The goal of such provisions is to allow employees to report actual employer wrongdoing, bringing regulatory violations and crimes to light in order to correct them. In the cases of the Protecting America’s Workers Act, the Robert C. Byrd Miner and Safety [...]
A group of Congressional Democrats today announced legislation to make a broad array of changes to workplace safety laws. While the bill primarily seeks to overhaul existing mine safety laws, it includes several onerous provisions taken from the long-pending Protecting America’s Workers Act. Such proposals are simply not the right approach to assist both employers [...]
As we have noted previously, the Coalition for Workplace Safety is concerned that a shift in OSHA resources and focus away from highly successful voluntary workplace safety programs toward an enforcement-first position will have serious and negative unintended consequences, including a reaction from employers to resist engagement with the government. Therefore the Coalition, along with [...]
The employer community led by 19 major employer organizations sent the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) extensive comments to reflect our concerns with the agency’s proposed rulemaking on the recordkeeping of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). As we detail in our comments, despite many years of study and research, the scientific community remains unable to reliably [...]
Today, the House Education and Labor Committee’s Workplace Protections Sub-Committee will hold a hearing to discuss proposed changes to the Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2067). Unfortunately, this legislation seeks to simply increase penalties on employers for OSHA violations and expand liability instead of promoting cooperative engagement between employers and OSHA. For OSHA to be [...]
Today, OSHA held what we hope is the first of many efforts to reach out to the employer community to discuss key issues facing the agency. I was able to speak at the “OSHA Listens” event to offer manufacturers’ suggestions for how OSHA can assist employers to make workplaces safer. First, it’s important to realize [...]