State Workplace Safety Agencies Lacking Oversight?
The federal government’s agency which oversees workplace safety is known as OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). But, each state can choose to oversee its own workers’ safety, with OSHA helping to foot the bill and promising oversight. However, a recent report from the Center for Public Integrity questions whether OSHA is able to keep tabs on the state-run agencies.
According to the report, printed here on McClatchy DC, violations doled out by state-run safety programs often lack the “teeth” needed to encourage reforms.
One case highlighting this is that of Tina Hall, who was killed when a workplace chemical burn caused third-degree burns over 90 percent of her body. The state agency in Kentucky fined her employer and issued 16 violations. But, the fine and violations went away when the employer promised to challenge them. The state’s reason for abandoning the sanctions? That they wouldn’t stand up in court.
However, those violations and fines were reinstated when the company failed to make necessary safety changes, as they had promised in a written settlement.
For victims and their families, state-run agencies often don’t do enough to bring justice to their cases or to prevent future similar accidents.
The Center for Public Integrity explains the state’s role in workplace safety as such:
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, states that choose to regulate workplace health and safety must ensure that their programs are “at least as effective” as the federal one. OSHA pays up to half the costs of such programs and is supposed to keep tabs on them.
By some accounts, it hasn’t done a particularly good job. After news reports about a rash of construction worker deaths in Las Vegas, OSHA reviewed the Nevada program in 2009 and found a long list of flaws. Among them: State inspectors weren’t sufficiently trained to identify construction hazards.
OSHA looked at the programs in the 25 other states that administer their own, and found deficiencies such as uncollected penalties in North Carolina and misclassified violations in South Carolina. Kentucky, OSHA found, was taking too long to issue citations and wasn’t making complainants aware of “specific official findings.”
The U.S. Labor Department’s inspector general reported last year that OSHA hadn’t found a suitable way to measure the effectiveness of state programs. In his response to the inspector general, OSHA chief David Michaels wrote that the agency was developing a new monitoring system that would involve, among other things, reviews of state enforcement case files.
As a construction worker, it doesn’t really matter who is keeping you safe, as long as your safety is a priority to someone in a high place, whether it’s the employer, a state-run organization or OSHA at the federal level. The important thing is that you are safe.
Ginarte Construction Accident Attorneys
When you are injured on the job, you don’t only want prompt medical attention — you want the assurance that the same sort of accident won’t happen again. One way to do this is to hold the person or company responsible for your injury accountable. We may be able to help with this.
The New Jersey / New York construction accident attorneys with Ginarte Law Firm understand what you’re going through as you struggle to recover from a fall, burn, or other construction accident. Contact us today to discuss your case and the rights you have. Call 888-GINARTE now.
