Occupational Safety and Health Act Changes

Proposed changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which I wrote about in an earlier post, are quite far-reaching. Besides expanding coverage of the act to all federal and state government employees and some local government workers, it would allow those injured in work-related accidents to participate in OSHA inspections of the employer. It would also, among other things, allow employees and unions to contest settlements between OSHA and employers that withdraw or modify citations and increase the penalties for “repeat and willful” violations.

Rod Smith and Pat Miller of the Sherman & Howard law firm have prepared an excellent summary of the provisions of the bill, which was introduced by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.).