TRSA Addresses Concerns with High-Ranking OSHA Officials

TRSA's Kevin Schwalb meets with OSHA officials Jordan Barab and Richard Fairfax

WASHINGTON, DC, May 2, 2011 – In an exclusive meeting with a pair of senior staff members of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Friday, TRSA warned that some new agency policies are likely to thwart future successes in worker protection by discouraging businesses from consulting with OSHA as they experiment with new practices to improve workplace safety and health.

Kevin Schwalb, TRSA’s director of government relations, offered our industry as an example to Jordan Barab and Richard Fairfax in an afternoon meeting in Washington, DC. Both Barab and Fairfax hold the title of deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health with the agency.

Schwalb pledged to Barab and Fairfax that TRSA would work with the agency to identify OSHA practices that don’t improve safety and are costly and problematic to textile services companies. TRSA has a history of similar cooperation with regulators, having negotiated voluntary programs such as LaundryESP® and the NPE detergent phaseout. Our record of environmental improvement indicates that such flexible solutions meet government objectives while enabling businesses to operate effectively.

In contrast, command-and-control regulation might negatively affect workplace safety. Among the specific issues addressed at Friday’s meeting was OSHA’s recent shift from a collaborative posture to a more adversarial approach toward business.

“Employers, particularly small businesses, should be able to consult with OSHA and receive its assistance to better understand and comply with existing workplace safety standards to enhance the safety of their workplaces without fear of citations and fines,” Schwalb said. He noted that OSHA recently proposed subjecting small businesses to additional enforcement if they participate voluntarily in on-site consultation programs with the agency. Such a rule would make them more reticent to reach out to OSHA for help and less likely to participate in this kind of program, widely recognized as effective in improving safety.

In addition, Schwalb said, “It is troubling that OSHA performed no analysis to determine how small businesses might react. Such research would likely have found that they would be deterred. OSHA should focus on developing incentives and strategies that will encourage as many employers as possible to participate in these programs.”

Another issue discussed was OSHA’s emerging Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) rule that would mandate standards for every employer safety and health program. Schwalb said, “We are concerned that this proposal may not take into account the efforts by employers who already have effective safety and health programs in place or how this new mandate would disrupt safety programs that have measurable successes.”

Based on preliminary information from the agency, in the event of a workplace injury not regulated under a specific standard or not resulting from a “significant risk,” this proposal may allow OSHA investigators to overturn an employer’s I2P2 the agency previously deemed sufficient. Schwalb continued, “blaming the employer’s entire plan for as little as one alleged deficiency and requiring the entire I2P2 to be rebuilt on this basis is severe.”

Other topics discussed were:

• The Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) recordkeeping rulemaking.
• The outlook for the future of the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), the Alliance Program and other industry partnerships.
• Status of the combustible dust rulemaking.
• Status of finalizing the rule that would only exempt companies in the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) from programmed inspections for one year.

The two OSHA officials said that they appreciated the conversation and looked forward to working with TRSA to address worker safety and health.