"We've got a very activist Secretary of Labor and a very activist head of OSHA," said a longtime safety professional after the eventful day.
10 TENETS OF OBAMA'S OSHA
Here are highlights of the new agenda, as laid out by Solis and Barab:
1 - OSHA is back. DOL Secretary Solis and OSHA chief Barab have strong union ties, and are pushing an aggressive OSHA plan that in large part mirrors goals organized labor has promoted for OSHA.
Solis, for instance, spoke of her working class parents in Los Angeles, both union members, "fighting side by side on their shifts to ensure workers came home safe," and instilling in her the value that you "fight for what is right."
2 - More than 150 new inspectors will be hired in fiscal year 2010.
3 - Number of annual inspections will increase from 38,000 nationwide to perhaps 44,000, according to some sources. OSHA has not announced any inspection quota or target.
4 - Penalties will be higher for violations. Consider these six-figure-plus fines proposed since Inauguration Day in January: more than $1.1 million in penalties to Milk Specialties Co. in Whitehall, Wis.; more than $255,000 in fines against a New Hampshire firearms manufacturer; more than $141,000 in fines against Hess Corp.; $105,000 in proposed penalties against an Orlando manufacturer; a Petrolia, Pa., chemical company fined more than $121,000; fall hazards at a Torrington, Conn., site lead to more than $118,000 in penalties; $273,000 in fines against a Jamestown, N.Y., employer for lack of asbestos safeguards; and an El Paso, Texas, construction contractor fined $106,200 for alleged workplace safety violations.
5 - New standards will come out on diacetyl flavoring used for popcorn, combustible dust exposure protection, cranes and derricks, confined space in construction, and rewriting the hazard communication standard to be consistent with new international MSDS laws. This is commonly called the Global Harmonization System (GHS).
6 - Broad, sweeping new standards will come out in 2011 or 2012 on ergonomics and basic requirements for having an overall safety and health program.
7 - Overall, OSHA will be more aggressive with standards and policing / enforcement than in the last 20 years.
8 - The boom years are over for VPP growth. Unions do not like VPP because they argue OSHA's audits of candidate companies to gain entry to VPP program are too weak.
9 - Incentive programs are not favorites of the new OSHA leaders. Again, this reflects union thinking. Unions argue incentive programs lead to workers not reporting injuries in order to win prizes, and a focus on worker behaviors over plant physical conditions.
10 - Recordkeeping and safety in the chemical industry will receive particular scrutiny as the objects for forthcoming OSHA National Emphasis Programs.
"WE'RE BACK", said the diminutive Solis, smiling as she stood in a concrete back hallway that exits the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, talking with Barab following a brief press conference that came after her ten-minute speech to about 3,300 ASSE members at the meeting's opening session, held in a cavernous, generic convention ballroom.
"Make no mistake about it," she told the standing room only crowd which lined the hall's walls and had attendees sitting on the floor, "the Department of Labor is back in the enforcement business. We are serious, very serious."
Labor Secretary Solis comes across as the toughest talking DOL head since Elizabeth Dole in the early 1990s took an active interest in OSHA affairs and informed business and the safety profession "the cop is back on the beat."
WILL PROS BUY INTO THE NEW OSHA?
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