OSHA deputy assistant secretary Jim Stanley resigned from the agency last month for "an offer he couldn’t refuse" to become vice president for health and safety at AK Steel, according to an OSHA spokesperson. Stanley has his work cut out for him in the newly created position: The 3,300-employee Middletown, Ohio, mill, among the nation’s largest, has one of the steel industry’s worst accident records. Eight workers died in AK job accidents in two years starting October, 1993, according to a December 12 report in the Wall Street Journal. Stanley will report directly to AK Steel’s CEO, an OSHA spokeswoman says.
Elements of the most recent senate OSHA reform bill may discourage employees from voicing safety and health concerns to OSHA, the Voluntary Protection Program Participants’ Association stated in comments presented to bill sponsor Senator Judd Gregg last month. The association says it maintains reservations about sections of S. 1423, "The Occupational Safety and Health Reform and Reinvention Act," that would limit worker protections, grant incentives without adequate assurance of increased workplace protection, and exempt employers from scheduled inspections based merely on third party or consultation program reviews.
The VPPPA does, however, applaud sponsors of the bill for their efforts to include incentives for voluntary compliance activities in the bill.
But the VPPA’s point may be moot: OSHA reform bills won’t go far this year, sources say. The budget battle and presidential politics are just too distracting. At a recent meeting sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers, NAM officials urged business lobbyists to counter the heavy anti-reform offensive of organized labor. But lobbyists say their CEOs just aren’t interested in OSHA reform. They don’t see it going anywhere, making it not worth their time or money. Plus, big-company execs with good safety programs don’t want to roll back requirements and give competitors who don’t spend on safety an advantage.