The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is supposed to serve as the watchdog for worker safety at US job sites. Officially, it develops and enforces government standards that businesses and other non-governmental organizations are required to follow in order to prevent employees from getting sick or injured. But drastic cutbacks and policy changes have left OSHA a shell of its former self when it first came into existence in the early 1970s. Several Republican administrations, including that of President George W. Bush, have worked to lessen the regulatory power of OSHA and turn its mandatory worker-safety programs into voluntary-based efforts by employers. According to government records, in 2005 there were more than 6,800 workplace-related deaths in the United States and 4,200,000 injuries and illnesses.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has had a long and embattled existence. Even before OSHA’s creation, the idea of stricter federal regulations over workplace safety sparked considerable opposition from businesses. In January 1968, President Lyndon Johnson called on Congress to enact a job safety and health program, saying it was unacceptable for a modern industrial nation like the US to not have tougher regulations aimed at reducing the rate of workers injured or killed on the job. President Johnson was unable to garner sufficient votes to pass his plan, leaving the creation of a new government agency charged with developing occupational safety regulations in the hands of President Richard Nixon. In spite of his pro-business affiliation, Nixon agreed to sign the landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which led the Department of Labor to create OSHA in 1971.
OSHA was criticized during its inaugural decade of the 1970s, partly for inconsistent decision-making when enforcing health and safety regulations, and partly by intransient opposition from big business to OSHA’s mandate. Things only got worst in the eyes of business leaders when President Jimmy Carter took office and his OSHA leader, Eula Bingham, embarked on a campaign to reduce health hazards in the work place, including toxic chemicals.
Business leaders thought differently of Carter’s successor, President Ronald Reagan. Having come into office with the promise to reduce the size of government and lessen its impact on business, Reagan went about trying to weaken OSHA’s ability to enforce safety and health regulations. Reagan officials in the Department of Labor reevaluated existing standards and those under development to find ways of making them less burdensome. OSHA adopted a less punitive approach to citations and penalties levied on employers, and the agency placed greater emphasis on supporting state workplace safety programs and encouraging voluntary compliance by employers. Budget cuts by the White House forced OSHA to reduce its staff compliance officers, reducing oversight of businesses throughout the country. Union officials and labor supporters accused Reagan, and his successor, George H. W. Bush, of gutting OSHA.
With the election of President Bill Clinton in 1992, the bleeding of OSHA stopped. However, the centrist, business-friendly Democrat did not roll back the changes installed under Reagan and revitalize OSHA as some labor supporters had hoped. Instead, OSHA continued to fight for its life once Republicans took control of Congress in 1994. Provisions introduced by GOP members tried to weaken OSHA’s ability to impose mandatory standards that companies must abide by.
Under the administration of President George W. Bush, OSHA has become even less of a safety watchdog. President Bush’s appointees at OSHA have turned the agency into a largely voluntary-oriented program. The administration’s anti-regulatory philosophy has translated into a smaller staff at OSHA to develop new standards, less reliance on the views of organized labor and an enlarged role for businesses.
Part of the Department of Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) develops and enforces government standards geared towards protecting workers on the job. OSHA also provides training and education to employers and employees on ways to improve health and safety in the workplace. Most industries and employment sectors come under OSHA regulations, with the exception of miners, transportation workers, many public employees and the self-employed. OSHA makes available to the public a wide range of data and statistics regarding health and safety in the workplace.
OSHA employs inspectors who look into allegations of health and safety violations by employers and is supposed to levy fines in cases where employers have been found guilty of violations. However, because of budget cuts over the years, OSHA has increasingly relied on state-level OSHA programs (which are independent of the federal OSHA) to carry out this important mission.
OSHA Programs
The Whistleblower Protection Program is designed to help workers who have been retaliated against for filing complaints about workplace safety. Forms of retaliation, according to OSHA, consist of:
- Firing or laying off
- Blacklisting
- Demoting
- Denying overtime or promotion
- Disciplining
- Denial of benefits
- Failure to hire or rehire
- Intimidation
- Reassignment affecting prospects for promotion
- Reducing pay or hours
The Strategic Partnership Program (OSPP) is a key element of the Bush administration’s efforts to move OSHA away from traditional enforcement methods and toward collaborative agreements with employers. Through OSPP, businesses agree to work cooperatively with OSHA to address critical safety and health issues. This program is complimented by OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) in which management, labor and OSHA officials work together to implement safety and health management systems.
On-Site Consultation service offers free and confidential advice to small and medium-sized businesses in all states across the country, with priority given to high-hazard worksites. Consultation services are separate from enforcement efforts used by OSHA and do not result in penalties or citations.
Local Emphasis Programs are enforcement strategies designed and implemented at the regional or area office level. These programs are intended to address hazards or industries that pose a particular risk to workers in a given jurisdiction.
The
Susan Harwood Training Grant Program
awards
grants to nonprofit organizations on a competitive basis to provide training and education programs for employers and employees.
With the exception of only a few industries, such as mining, plus public employees, almost all job sectors and industries are covered by OSHA regulations, giving the agency one of the largest audiences of stakeholders within the federal government. There are more than 10 million businesses in the US, and most of them must comply with OSHA health and safety standards. From fast food cashiers to industrial engineers at chemical plants, OSHA’s work potentially affects more than 100 million Americans.
OSHA Under Bush
Investigations by the New York Times and Washington Post have pointed out that the Bush administration has consistently scaled back OSHA regulations and enforcement efforts during this decade. The changes reflect President Bush’s vow to limit new rules and roll back what it considered cumbersome regulations that imposed unnecessary costs on businesses.
According to the New York Times, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history during Bush’s two terms in office. It has imposed only one major safety rule, and the only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court. Furthermore, OSHA officials have killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others.
For example, OSHA experts have said silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, and construction site noise should be listed as health hazards that warrant new safeguards affecting nearly three million workers. But OSHA’s leadership has yet to require them.
“The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency,” said Dr. David Michaels, an occupational health expert at George Washington University. “If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they’ve forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the window.”
Another example was provided by the Washington Post, which reported in 2004 how the administration scuttled almost 10 years of work to create new health and safety standards designed to stop the spread of tuberculosis in the workplace. During the 1990s, health experts noticed that TB was reappearing with alarming frequency across the United States. OSHA under President Clinton began writing rules to protect five million people whose jobs put them in special danger of contracting TB, including those who work in hospitals, homeless shelters, prisons and drug treatment centers.
During the first three years of President Bush’s term in office, OSHA officials sat on the TB regulations. Then, on the last day of 2003, the administration quietly killed them. Officials insisted voluntary measures were effective enough to take care of the problem.
Post 9/11 Changes for OSHA
After the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, OSHA decided to change its policy regarding emergencies. No longer would it enforce health and safety regulations during terrorist attacks or other serious incidents, according to the agency’s new National Emergency Management Plan (NEMP) (PDF). Instead, OSHA will provide technical assistance during large-scale emergencies, such as assessing the risks faced by emergency workers first on the scene.
This decision has alarmed some labor and worker safety experts. During the rescue and recovery operations in New York, many of the 6,000 workers did not wear proper respiratory protection and were not protected from the toxic atmosphere that was present. “OSHA’s NEMP has some shocking flaws,” said Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.
Instead of OSHA keeping watch over the safety of first responders, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may wind up responsible for enforcing health and safety regulations. Or will they? DHS oversees the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Plan (NRP), which include OSHA standards. But there’s no guarantee that DHS officials will see to the enforcement of workplace safety laws during emergencies.
As for FEMA, an agency official said it was unclear how safety and health standards will be enforced. “FEMA is not a regulatory agency,” the official explained, “and therefore it has no role in enforcing workplace safety regulations.”
In National Emergencies, OSHA to Provide Assistance, Not Enforcement
(by James Nash, Occupational Hazards)
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Founded: 1971
Annual Budget: $453 million
Employees: 2,200
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
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Barab, Jordan
Acting Assistant Secretary
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Organized labor was nothing short of giddy when President Barack Obama decided to make Jordan Barab the temporary head, and permanent No. 2 official, at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Having spent his entire professional career dealing with workplace safety issues, Barab knows OSHA like the back of his hand, warts and all. The former labor union specialist worked at OSHA during the last years of the Clinton administration, and while George W. Bush was in the White House, Barab used his blog to publicly blast Republican efforts to weaken job safety regulations.
A native of Palos Verdes Estates, CA, Barab graduated from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, CA, in 1975 and received his master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in 1978.
From 1982 to 1998, Barab directed the safety and health program for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the largest labor unions in the nation.
He left the union in 1998 to join the Clinton administration, serving as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA until 2001. During this time Barab helped spearhead the agency’s efforts to protect workers from musculoskeletal disorders, and he worked on a controversial set of new rules for ergonomics standards that the business lobby opposed. Although the rules were implemented in January 2001 during the closing days of President Clinton’s second term in office, Congress and President George W. Bush repealed them two months later.
After leaving OSHA, Barab went back to the ranks of organized labor, becoming a health and safety specialist for the AFL-CIO from 2001 to 2002. He then worked on workplace safety issues for the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board from 2002 to 2007, before joining the House Education and Labor Committee as a senior labor policy advisor for health and safety from 2007 to April 2009.
Barab was an outspoken critic of the Bush administration through his workplace safety blog, Confined Space, which he ceased updating in 2007.
Barab joined OSHA as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health as well as Acting Assistant Secretary on April 13, 2009.
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Foulke, Edwin
Previous Assistant Secretary
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A native of Perkasie, PA, Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health from September 2005 until November 2008. Foulke graduated from North Carolina State University (with honors) in 1974. He earned his law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1978 and a Master of Law degree from Georgetown University Law School in 1993.
From 1990 to 1995, Foulke served on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, chairing the commission from March 1990 to February 1994. The three-member commission is an independent federal adjudicatory agency that renders decisions involving workplace safety and health citations arising from OSHA inspections.
Foulke served on the Workplace Health and Safety Committee for the Society for Human Resource Management from 2000 to 2004, including a two-year term as the committee’s chair. He was also a member of the Health and Safety Subcommittee for the US Chamber of Commerce.
Prior to taking over OSHA, Foulke was a partner with the law firm of Jackson Lewis, LLP in Greenville, SC, and Washington, DC, a firm that specializes in opposing union organizing, where he chaired the firm’s OSHA practice group. His practice areas included all topics of labor relations, specializing in occupational safety and health issues, workplace violence risk assessment and prevention, and accident and fatality prevention.
In 2000, Foulke contributed $1,000 to President George W. Bush’s presidential campaign as well as $1,000 to the Republican Party. He was formerly Republican Party state chairman in South Carolina and a leading fundraiser for the Republican Party.
Foulke incurred the wrath of labor leaders in 2006 following a speech that was construed as insulting by union officials. The speech was given at the American Society of Safety Engineers, which had conducted a safety-on-the-job poster contest for children. Foulke said he crafted his speech, “Adults Do the Darndest Things,” as an homage to Art Linklater. It included a series of pictures of workers performing dangerous tasks, including individuals covered in hazmat suits while an onlooker is wearing shorts and T-shirt - to which Folke quipped, “I hope he wore sunscreen.”
In a year that saw multiple mining accidents and at an explosion at a BP refinery in Ohio, the labor community interpreted the remarks as a slam at workers, blaming them for stupid mistakes on the job.
After resigning as the head of OSHA, Foulke joined the law firm of Fisher and Phillips in Atlanta.
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