Nearly four decades ago, Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, promising America's workers the right to a safe job. While progress has been made since the OSH Act was passed, the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities remains enormous. In 2008, 5,071 workers were killed on the job—an average of 14 deaths a day. An estimated 50,000 workers died from occupational diseases and millions more were injured. Major hazards including silica, toxic chemicals, infectious diseases and ergonomic hazards have not been addressed.
For many groups of workers, workplace conditions are particularly dangerous. Fatalities and injuries among immigrant and Latino workers are much greater than among other groups of workers due to their concentration in hazardous jobs, their vulnerability because of immigration status and their lack of union representation. Workers in the construction industry continue to be at especially high risk, with fatality rates much higher than those of workers in other industrial sectors.
Millions of workers still lack basic OSHA protections and rights. More than 8 million state and local public employees in 25 states are not covered by the OSH Act. Flight attendants, farm workers and other groups of workers are caught in a jurisdictional limbo with limited or no legal protection. And for federal workers, OSHA has no authority to enforce the correction of cited violations.
Penalties for serious and willful violations of the job safety law are weak, even in cases in which workers are killed or injured. The median OSHA penalty in cases involving a worker's death is less than $4,000, which is clearly inadequate and provides no deterrence. Protections for workers who report hazards or job injuries are also weak. There is a growing trend among employers to attempt to shift the responsibility for safety and health onto workers, by adopting behavioral safety and injury discipline programs, instead of fixing workplace hazards. Workers' and unions' rights to participate in OSHA enforcement actions are limited, resulting in settlements that fail to protect workers.
Under the Obama administration, OSHA is getting back to its mission of protecting workers. The agency is moving to issue new standards, to strengthen enforcement and to ensure workers' rights. But many of the deficiencies and weaknesses in OSHA protection can only be addressed through changes in the law.
Safety and health champions in Congress have introduced legislation—The Protecting America's Workers Act (H.R. 2067, S. 1580)—that would address major weaknesses in the OSH Act and provide workers stronger job safety rights and protections. The legislation:
- Extends the OSH Act and existing job safety protections to all state and local public employees, federal workers and millions of other workers who currently have no OSHA coverage or only limited protection.
- Increases OSHA penalties for job safety violations and establishes mandatory minimum penalties for violations resulting in worker deaths, so fines are more than a slap on the wrist. Criminal violations of the OSH Act would be made a felony, instead of a misdemeanor, and be expanded to cover cases that involve serious bodily injuries, not just worker deaths.
- Enhances anti-discrimination protections for workers who raise job safety concerns and report job injuries. It provides workers the right to pursue their case if OSHA fails to act in a timely fashion and writes into the law a worker's right to refuse unsafe work. The bill makes clear that employers cannot retaliate against a worker for reporting a job injury or illness and prohibits any employer policies or practices that discourage or discriminate against workers for reporting injuries and illnesses.
- Expands workers' and union rights in OSHA inspections and enforcement cases. The bill requires that workers be paid for the time spent participating in OSHA inspections. It provides workers and unions the right to contest the classification of violations and proposed penalties and to object to settlements that are inadequate.
- Provides victims of job injuries and illnesses and family members the right to be heard in OSHA investigations.
Four decades after the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, it's time for the country and Congress to fulfill the promise of safe jobs for all workers. The AFL-CIO strongly supports the Protecting America's Workers Act and urges affiliates, allies and safety and health activists to join us to see that this important bill becomes law.