Share
Federal OSHA will strengthen its oversight of states that run their own job safety programs - including the Carolinas - to ensure they adequately protect workers, the agency's leader told a congressional panel Thursday.
That announcement came during a hearing that focused on shortcomings at the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has come under sharp criticism after 25 construction deaths in Las Vegas.
Jordan Barab, federal OSHA's acting chief, said his agency will review state programs and could end up running one that is lacking.
"We are not trying to change the nature of our relationship between federal and state OSHA, but we need to speak with one voice and assure American workers they will receive adequate protection regardless of the state in which they work," Barab said.
A federal review of Nevada's workplace safety program found, among other things, that inspectors failed to issue citations for willful and repeat violations.
An Observer investigation into the poultry industry, published last year, found similar problems in North Carolina's OSHA program.
During the decade ending in 2007, only one of every 1,800 violations found at N.C. manufacturing plants was deemed "willful," a designation that can result in stiff fines and hurt a company's reputation. Nationally, about one of every 300 citations against manufacturers is labeled willful.
Average fines for serious violations in North Carolina were less than half the national average, the Observer found.
N.C. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry has contended that stiff fines aren't the most effective way to improve workplace safety. She says her department has accomplished more by cooperating with companies.
Dolores Quesenberry, a spokeswoman for the N.C. labor department, said the state has consistently fared well in its annual evaluations by federal OSHA.
"Our injury and illness rates are at an all-time low and we're doing a lot of things right," she said. "...We honestly feel like N.C. employers and employees don't, at this stage, need more interference from Washington."
But studies have found that injury rates can be deceptive, largely because they're based on companies' own reports. In its investigation, the Observer found that N.C. poultry giant House of Raeford masked the extent of plant injuries. OSHA recently launched a national program aimed at catching companies that hide workplace injuries.
Federal OSHA oversees workplace safety in about half the states. The remaining half run their own programs, with oversight from federal OSHA.
In Nevada, the state-run OSHA program weakened penalties against a casino company after two workers died and one was seriously injured, despite that company's history of similar problems.
"Essentially, nothing happens for the death of a worker," said U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. "There's something very wrong with that."
The Associated Press contributed.
