Paying for Protection 
by Gene C. Gerard
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 21, 2007



 

Two prominent labor organizations have sued the Bush administration for failing to protect nearly 20 million workers from job injuries. In 1999 the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed a rule requiring employers to pay for protective clothing, face shields, gloves and other equipment used by workers. But before the proposal became a standard Mr. Bush was elected to office. Since then, the Department of Labor has neglected to enact the standard and has consistently failed to ensure the safety of America's working men and women.

The personal protective equipment (PPE) rule would require employers to pay for safety items that protect workers from job hazards. Many workers in the nation's most dangerous industries, including meatpacking, poultry, and construction, who have high rates of injury, are forced by their employers to pay for their own safety gear because of the failure of OSHA to implement the PPE rule. According to OSHA's own figures, 400,000 workers have been injured and 50 have died owing to the lack of the PPE rule.

Under the Clinton administration, OSHA maintained that employers are in a better position than workers to select, maintain, and pay for the equipment best suited to protect them from injury. Poultry workers wear specialized wire mesh gloves to protect their hands and arms from cuts. Construction workers wear hard hats and shoes made of sturdy materials to protect them from falling objects. Consequently, in 1994, OSHA maintained that the PPE rule was intended to require employers to provide and pay for personal protective equipment that enabled workers to perform their job safely.

In fact, James W. Stanley, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, asserted in 1994 that "failure of the employers to pay for PPE that is not personal and not used away from the job is a violation and shall be cited." But in April 2001, only four months into the Bush administration, OSHA suddenly discontinued listing a target date for formalizing the PPE rule into a standard. And it listed the rule on its regulatory agenda as simply "undetermined." OSHA later announced that the rule would be implemented by March 2005, but that never happened.

That's why the AFL-CIO and United Food and Commercial Workers sued the Department of Labor earlier this month. The lawsuit asks the federal courts to compel the Secretary of Labor to make the PPE rule an OSHA standard. It's a sad turn of events when a government agency created to protect the health and welfare of the nation's workers must be forced to do so. But the Bush administration has done little to help America's working men and women since taking office.

In its first term the Bush administration withdrew dozens of safety and health rules from OSHA's regulatory agenda. These rules dealt with indoor air quality, safety and health education programs, and dangerous industrial equipment. And in six years OSHA has only issued one major safety standard. In 2006, after being sued by a group of steelworkers, OSHA issued a standard regarding the potentially deadly chemical hexavalent chromium. But the standard was so weak that even OSHA admitted that it leaves workers at a significant risk of developing cancer.

Since 2001 OSHA's budget has been cut by $14.5 million. Job safety programs have repeatedly been slashed. President Bush has consistently cut annual funding for safety training and education programs, and his fiscal year 2007 budget completely eliminated this funding. Not surprisingly, workplace fatalities and injuries have been on the rise. In 2004, the last year for which figures are available, there were 5,703 workplace deaths due to injuries. This was the first increase in the national workplace fatality rate in a decade.

Owing to cutbacks at OSHA, there were only about 2,100 inspectors responsible for enforcing the law at approximately eight million workplaces in 2005. At this staffing level it would take OSHA 117 years to inspect each workplace under its jurisdiction just once. And these inspections are becoming increasingly brief. Under the Bush administration, the average amount of time spent on each safety inspection by OSHA has declined 13 percent.

Given the previous position by OSHA to require employers to pay for personal protective equipment, there's no justifiable reason that the Bush administration should not have formalized this rule by now. OSHA was created by Congress to protect the health and safety of America's working men and women. It's unfortunate that workers now have to rely on litigation to ensure their basic safety. The federal courts should move quickly to hear this lawsuit and force the government to protect the nation's workforce.

Gene C. Gerard has taught history, religion, and ethics for 14 years at a number of colleges in the Southwest and is a contributing author to the forthcoming book Americans at War, by Greenwood Press. He writes a political blog for the world news website OrbStandard.

Other Articles by Gene C. Gerard

* Limiting Family Planning for the Poor
* Lawsuit Intends to Force the Bush Administration to Recognize the Constitution
* Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Endangers us All
* Failing Soldiers at Home, Too
* The Political Corruption of Science
* Backpedaling at the IRS
* Prescription Politics
* The We the (Evangelical) People Act
* Bush Administration Failing America’s AIDS Crisis
* Conservatives Favor “Purity” Over Cancer Vaccine
* Abstaining from Sex Education Politics
* A Very Questionable Judicial Nomination
* The Decider Nominates Chief Polluter for the EPA
* Iraq Can’t be Compared to Post-World War II
* The Politics of Foreign Aid
* The Air Force Soars to the Right
* Housing Cuts for the Poor, Tax Cuts for the Rich
* True to its History, the FBI is Still Violating Civil Liberties
* Another Unsavory Judicial Nomination
* Out of Touch with Military Reality
* The US and Iran: Birds of a Feather
* Bush Administration Ignored Coal Mine Safety Issues
* Tax Shelters Disguised as Health Care Reform
* Tax Breaks for the Wealthy
* Bush Chose Iraq Over America’s Homeless
* Bush Abuses Recess Appointment Power
* Another Brownie in the Making
* Pharmacists Can’t Say No to Contraception
* Any Soldier Will Do For the Pentagon
* Kansas Attorney General is Bush’s Kind of Guy
* VA Seeks to Punish Iraq War Veterans
* Soldiers Shouldn’t Serve as Police Officers
* Republicans Require Health Insurance for Immigrants Only
* Poverty Increases as Incomes Decline Under President Bush
* As in World War II, The President Should Limit Oil Profits
* Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts and the Voting Rights Act
* The Flag Should Not Infringe on the First Amendment
* President Bush Must Address Outsourcing
* Consumer Confidence Decline Surprises Only the Bush Administration
* Conservative Ideology Hinders U.S. AIDS Policy
* The Record of Judge John Roberts
* Gay Marriage Critics Are Misguided
* Democrats Can Succeed Without the Filibuster
* Turkey is Not a Role Model for the Middle East
* Violations of Civil Liberties are an American Tradition
* The Economy Turned the Corner and Is Headed in the Wrong Direction
* Bush Administration Promotes Global Conflicts by Rewarding Allies
* Bush Administration Attempts to Influence Global HIV/AIDS Policy
* Conservatives, Judicial Impeachment, and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
* Appeals Court Nominee Janice Rogers Brown Merits the Filibuster
* Zimbabwe’s Very American Election
* Appeals Court Nominee Thomas B. Griffith is a Poor Choice
* President Bush’s Use of Pardons Isn’t Very Compassionate
* E.P.A. Nominee Supports Testing of Chemicals on Human Subjects
* Military Policy on Gays is Costly and Dangerous
* Bush Administration AIDS Policies Continue to Fall Short
* Bush’s Judicial Nominations are Hardly Mainstream
* Bush’s Budget is at Odds With His Rhetoric
* Iraq’s Election Will Not Guarantee Democracy
* The Politics of SpongeBob

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