Department of Labor Increases OSHA Funding

The FY 2010 budget funded 100 new OSHA inspectors. The FY 2011 proposes to hire more inspectors, as well as shifting current inspectors to enforcement.

The budget asks for $573 million for OSHA, which is $14 million more than that agency received in FY 2010. According to Solis, this budget request builds on the 2010 budget policy of returning worker protection programs to FY 2001 staffing levels after years of decline.

“Today's budget affirms this administration's strong commitment to vigorous enforcement,” said Solis during a Feb. 1 live Web chat. “With the largest fine in OSHA’s history and more egregious cases, we are sending a strong message throughout industry that we will not tolerate the endangerment of workers. We will continue those efforts with a number of new and innovative enforcement initiatives in the coming year.”

“With this budget we will hire 25 additional inspectors, and shift 35 who are presently doing compliance assistance to enforcement activities,” said OSHA Administrator David Michaels during the Web chat. “With these additional staff we will be able to conduct more targeted inspections and National and Local Emphasis Programs.”

Reduced VPP Funding

Solis also addressed OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) during the live Web chat. Last year, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report identifying oversight and internal control problems with VPP. Solis explained that OSHA proposes to “significantly reduce direct federal funding” of VPP “while working closely with the Agency’s stakeholders both to identify and secure alternative forms of funding.”

“We think the Voluntary Protection Program is making a valuable contribution to workplace safety,” Solis said during the chat. “But we are facing some very difficult budget choices. We need to decide whether we will spend our limited resources on supporting those companies who really ‘get it,’ who are doing a great job at protecting their employees, or do we spend our scarce resources on companies that disregard workplace safety and allow workers to die in situations that could easily have been prevented.”

Michaels stressed during the live chat that OSHA will work with stakeholders “to identify new or alternative funding sources” for VPP.

“In the meantime, we will be shifting field inspection staff from VPP programs to enforcement activities because the need in that area is particularly great,” Michaels said. “We recognize that VPP companies do an excellent job; OSHA resources need to be focused on employers who don't understand the importance of protecting their workers, particularly small employers.”

Worker Safety: Compliance comes first

Labor secretary, lawmakers make it clear that worker safety will not take a back seat to profits………..

Washington — Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration vowed to strengthen workplace safety laws and step up their enforcement, moving away from the Bush administration’s belief in voluntary compliance.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis drew loud applause at a worker memorial event as she dismissed the previous administration’s “ideological response” and called for a new direction. “Let me be clear: The Department of Labor is back in the enforcement business,” Solis said. “No one in America should go to work fearful for their health and safety.”

In Solis’ remarks, she announced initiatives that include a program targeting severe violators of workplace safety regulations. Solis had previously announced the hiring of as many as 250 new Labor Department investigators.

Under her watch, OSHA “will be about workers, not voluntary programs and alliances,” she said, speaking before dozens of labor leaders and workers at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. Where they had gathered for the groundbreaking of a memorial for workers killed on the job.

“The government has a fundamental responsibility to protect workers,” she said.

Much of the debate over OSHA will play out in Congress, where Democrats have tried unsuccessfully in recent years to update the three-decade-old Occupational Safety and Health Act. A House bill authored by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., beefs up civil fines on employers who violate safety laws. Maximum fines would increase from $70,000 to $120,000 for willful violations, and from $7,000 to $12,000 for serious violations. The legislation also would create a felony category for criminal violations and provide a mechanism for accident victims and families to have a say in penalties.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plans to offer a similar bill. However, the Senate is also considering legislation tightly focused on just two areas — penalties and victims’ rights. Streamlined legislation could pass more swiftly in the Senate, where Republicans have opposed sweeping OSHA legislation.

Union Safety Contacts: