The Protecting America's Workers Act, introduced by Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., would let the Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforce stiffer penalties for willful safety violations that result in serious injury or death.
Kim Stille, area director for Madison's OSHA office, said the bill would set intent as the difference between criminal charges and standard fees. For example, she said, if a backhoe operator backs over and crushes a co-worker's leg, criminal charges would follow if the project manager, CEO or safety director knew the backhoe had service issues and instructed the worker to use it anyway.
Under current rules, Stille said, the company would face a maximum penalty of $70,000 for that kind of willful violation. If the federal bill passes, the penalty could be $120,000 or 10 years in prison.
According to the bill, repeat offenders could face 20-year sentences.
A change in the law could slow the rate of accidents, said Aaron Albright, press secretary for the House Committee on Education and Labor.
"From the legislative hearings we've held in committee and subcommittee," he said, "it's obvious that penalties are not working."
Turmail said OSHA's system, which lets contractors abate citations by fixing OSHA-identified problems, works. Since the program was implemented in 1998, he said, the construction fatality rate dropped by almost 50 percent nationally.
"Obviously, we're not going to be happy until the fatality rate is zero," he said. "But why reject 10 years of unquestioned success?"
Stille said stiffer penalties could create safer environments, but the change also could hurt OSHA's relationship with the construction industry.
"I would like to think employers are providing a safe work environment for their workers anyway because it's the morally right thing to do," she said. "There are some employers that need extra motivation, but it's dangerous when penalties become a factor of doing business."
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