On the heels of the longest partial shutdown of the federal government in U.S. history, labor advocates are voicing more significant, systemic concerns regarding regulatory oversight of workplace safety in the current administration. Those concerns are especially prominent in New York, where statistics have shown a dramatic increase in workplace deaths, and NYC’s most dangerous year for construction accidents in nearly a decade. Despite those alarming trends, new data shows federal officials from the Department of Labor and its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are issuing fewer fines for New York employers. An article from City Limits breaks down the numbers, noting that while OSHA workplace inspections have slightly increased in New York, federal regulators are:
- Citing fewer infractions per visit;
- Issuing less violations overall; and
- Taking inflation into account, issuing smaller penalties.
A Nationwide Concern
Although OSHA has been critical to protecting men and women in American workplaces, and has reduced work-related injuries and deaths by 65% since it was created in 1971 (even while the U.S. workforce today is twice the size it was then), the agency is still being put on the backburner by federal officials. Labor leaders and workplace safety advocates say that while policy changes to OSHA and workplace regulations didn’t come as ferociously or immediately as they did to agencies like the EPA, there are still number of problems that create concerns nationwide:- No leader – OSHA has not had a permanent leader for at least two years. As Scott Mugno awaits confirmation, acting administrator Loren Sweatt’s two-year tenure is the longest of its kind for the nearly 48-year-old agency.
- Fewer inspectors – Even without a leader, OSHA has seen changes, including fewer federal inspectors. When President Trump was first inaugurated in 2017, the agency had nearly 815 inspectors. As of January 2018, that decreased to 764 inspectors.
- More visits, less time – Although there were fewer inspectors, those who remained were conducting roughly 1.5% more work-site visits in 2017 than in 2016, but less than any other year under the previous administration. The visits have been criticized as consisting of less actual inspection, and focusing on worksites with fewer complications.
Less Complicated Inspections & New Policies
Inspection complexity, which is one of the most meaningful ways to assess OSHA’s work, is measured by “enforcement units.” This metric credits inspectors for the effort and time required of specific inspection-related tasks. Inspecting process-safety procedures at a chemical facility, for example, would yield 7 enforcement units, compared to just 2 netted by inspections of a federal agency. These metrics, adopted in 2016, were created to increase focus on improving enforcement actions and policies related to health and safety issues in more challenging areas, such as toxic and chemical exposure, violence in the workplace, and process-safety management. A Freedom of Information Act filed by National Employment Law Project revealed OSHA’s enforcement units fell roughly 7% under the new administration. In Terms of new policy changes, the Trump Administration has already begun to reshape OSHA with efforts such as:- Redefining a rule that prohibited employers from retaliating against workers who reported injuries, illnesses, or job-related hazards by requiring them to take drug or alcohol tests.
- Nullifying the Volks Rule, which required companies to maintain work-related injury and illness records for at least 5 years.
- Proposing a new rule that requires companies with 250+ employees to keep OSHA 300 logs, but does not require them to submit logs electronically to a public database – something advocates fear may intimidate workers who want to check on their workplace safety history.
- Shuttering OSHA’s Whistleblower Advisory Committee, and four other workplace safety panels operating under the agency.