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Labor Department to institute more worker protections in 2010
By Mark Gruenberg 18 January 2010
| WASHINGTON - Forcing more disclosure on union-busters – and how much money companies spend on them – and ordering companies to resume counting ergonomic injuries are among the highlights of the Obama Labor Department’s proposed rules agenda for this year. |
In electronic web chats, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and other officials emphasized the agency would once again go to bat for workers’ interests, not just with the rules proposals but with increased enforcement. OSHA, for example, is hiring 100 more inspectors, she said.
There are “22 new regulatory items on the agenda,” Solis added, besides DOL’s emphasis on “green jobs, more reinforcement, protection of workers, and helping returning veterans receive employment assistance and job training.”
Proposals include:
• Re-establishing a separate ergonomic job injury log column in OSHA reports, and ordering companies to report faithfully within it. Ergonomic injuries, also known as repetitive-motion injuries and musculoskeletal disorders, are estimated to be up to one-third of all yearly job injuries. While improving recordkeeping, Solis said has no plans to propose a broader ergonomic standard.
• Forcing more disclosure of union-busting by employers, as required under the 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act. The rule was not enforced under the Bush administration.
• The Wage and Hour Division is hiring 250 new investigators and will concentrate on industries with high violation rates that “employ vulnerable workers,” Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink said in her on-line chat. They include agriculture, restaurants, janitorial, construction and car washes, “among others,” she said.
• A proposed rule ordering coal mines to cut miners’ exposure to breathing coal dust. Breathing the dust causes “black lung” and other diseases. The present rule, setting a limit of 2 milligrams of coal dust per cubic meter of air, was set in 1972, the Mine Safety and Health Administration said. A 1995 federal study, which Bush never acted on, called for a lower limit and listed tougher enforcement actions.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission. |
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