Government Safety Regulations

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More than 70% of major U.S. employers engage in some form of electronic monitoring of workers, tracking their email, Internet use and whereabouts with GPS devices, according to William Staples, a University of Kansas sociologist who has released the second edition of his book, “Everyday Surveillance.”

A coalition of worker safety and food safety groups is urging the FDA to drop a proposed regulation that would pull government food inspectors from poultry plants and allow companies to conduct their own inspections and speed up production lines.

OSHA this week unveiled four rules it says will reduce unnecessary burdens on employers by updating or rescinding obsolete regulations and requirements. One rule updates and streamlines the standards for the use of mechanical power presses while the remaining three rules from the Employment and Training Administration rescind outdated Foreign Labor Certification regulations for the H-2A, F-1 and H-1A programs.

Occupational safety regulation needs to emerge from the 19th century concept that employers have to right to privately injure employees, and instead use the sunshine of modern public transparency to spotlight employer’s risk based safety performance.

The current administration looks to Saul Alinsky’s “Twelve Rules for Radicals” for their guidance. OSHA has now stepped in this direction and away from safety principles. Their first foray was the Shaming Press Releases.

Statement by Christina Morgan, US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) Recommendations Specialist, at a public hearing on Executive Order 13650: Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security, November 15, 2013.

It’s been a long time coming. OSHA first proposed updated standards for electrical power transmission and distribution, and electrical protective equipment in 2005. Final rules were scheduled for release early in 2013. There has still been  no final publication, but electrical safety experts say the release date is approaching, based on conversations with DC regulators and the Office of Management and Budget.

The former president of Port Arthur Chemical and Environmental Services LLC (PACES) has been sentenced for occupational safety crimes which resulted in the death of an employee. Matthew Lawrence Bowman, 41, of Houston, was sentenced last month to 12 months in federal prison, after pleading to violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and making a false statement.

One of the largest manufacturers of chromium chemicals in the world has been ordered to pay a $2,571,800 for failing to disclose information about the health risks of hexavalent chromium exposure to its workers.

An asbestos victims’ group says a bill passed recently by the U.S. House of Representatives would make it more difficult for those harmed by asbestos to get compensation.