OSHA Delays Critical Protections as Worker Deaths Increase

By Katie Tracy, Center for Progressive Reform

President Trump planned and then starred in his own ribbon-cutting ceremony last week, symbolic of all the safeguards for health, safety and the environment that he intends to shred while in office. This mockery of the administration’s obligation to ensure the public is protected from harm caused by corner-cutting businesses coincided with the release of the Administration’s fall 2017 regulatory agenda. What this political stunt — and the rhetoric that goes along with it — really means, however, is that Trump cares more about reducing the sheer number of regulatory safeguards than he does about evaluating the benefits those safeguards provide to our health and safety.

As with the spring 2017 iteration of the agenda, Trump makes clear he has no concern for working families. OSHA’s fall agenda includes 16 planned activities, up from 14 in the spring. Of the 16, seven are listed as in the final stages. Not one of these rules would expand worker protections.

One of the rules listed in the final category is the delay of the compliance date until Dec. 15, 2017, for an Obama-era rule to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses. Notably, the agenda also includes a proposal to weaken provisions of this final rule.

A rule OSHA plans to finalize in the months ahead is its recent proposal to weaken the 2017 beryllium standard. In its current form, the beryllium standard is projected to save 90 workers’ lives and prevent 46 new cases of chronic disease annually. Apparently, the Trump administration doesn’t think this is a worthwhile endeavor, and so is moving ahead with revisions to the standard that will ease requirements on the construction and maritime industries by removing applicable ancillary provisions.

Another rule listed as in the final stage is a delay of the effective date for crane operator qualification requirements in the 2010 Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard, which specifies the criteria employers are to use to determine if operators are qualified to operate cranes safely on construction sites. OSHA is reconsidering certain provisions of the rule, and has decided to delay until November 10, 2018, the deadline for employers to ensure that crane operators are certified and competent to operate a crane safely.

Other rules listed as in the final stage are merely items delayed from the agency’s spring 2017 agenda. For example, OSHA is delaying by five months the date by which it expects to finalize a 2016 proposed rule to update several existing standards and paperwork requirements identified as unnecessary or duplicative. OSHA is also delaying by seven months its expected date for making technical corrections to 16 other standards.

The fall 2017 agenda also lists five actions in the pre-rule stage and four in the proposal stage. All but one of these nine actions are delays of activities listed in the spring 2017 agenda. The one remaining action—Amendments to the Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard—was moved from the list of Long-Term Actions back to the proposal stage where it had been for several years prior to Trump taking office. This corresponds to the delayed effective date for crane operator certifications, as noted above. OSHA now intends to issue a proposed rule amending the 2010 final standard by September 2018.

OSHA’s list of Long-Term Actions hasn’t changed significantly since the spring agenda. Although two items were moved from the list and are now in play, the list still contains eight actions that have been indefinitely delayed, many of which would target critical health and safety hazards. This means that OSHA still has no intention of moving forward on these unregulated risks to workers, such as by protecting emergency responders from hazards they encounter or protecting health care workers from infectious diseases.

What does all this regulatory inaction and delay really mean for workers? Unfortunately, it means the Administration doesn’t consider worker health and safety a priority in the near- or long-term.

It should, considering that workplace deaths are on the rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported the total number of on-the-job fatalities in 2016 was 5,190, a 7-percent increase over 2015, and the first time the number has reached 5,000 since 2008.

Following is a complete list of the regulatory and deregulatory actions listed on OSHA’s fall 2017 agenda. Or you can download it in PDF form here.

Originally posted here.