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Responding
to AFL-CIO, UFCW Lawsuit, Bush Administration Agrees to Issue Safety Equipment
Rule for Employees AFL-CIO,
UFCW
lawsuit ends eight year wait for OSHA safety rule
For
Immediate Release
March 16, 2007
(
Washington
,)— In response to a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO and the United Food and
Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), the Bush Administration has
agreed to issue a final rule on employer payment for personal protective
equipment (PPE) for employees. In
1999, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first proposed
a PPE rule that would require employers to pay the costs of protective
clothing, lifelines, face shields, gloves and other equipment used by an
estimated 20 million workers to protect them from job hazards.
“We
applaud the decision to finally issue a final rule on employer payment for
their employees’ protective equipment” said AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney. “This rulemaking has
taken far too long. We will be
monitoring the Department of Labor’s actions to make sure they honor this
commitment and issue a strong, protective rule.”
“Many
of our collective bargaining agreements already require the company to pay the
full cost of protective equipment, but not all of them,” said United
Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard.
“This ruling will ultimately benefit workers without such contractual
protection and millions of workers without unions at all.”
On
January 3, 2007, the AFL-CIO and UFCW filed a lawsuit against the Bush
Administration over its failure to finalize the payment for PPE rule.
The court ordered the Bush Administration to respond to the lawsuit by
March 19. On March 14, the
Secretary of Labor filed papers with the court committing to issue a final
rule in November 2007.
“This
is a victory for workers who have suffered needlessly while awaiting action by
the Bush Administration,” said Joe Hansen, UFCW International President.
“According to OSHA’s own estimates, 400,000 workers have been
injured and 50 have died while the rule has been in limbo.
We expect a strong final rule this November.”
Workers
in the meatpacking, poultry and construction industries, and low-wage and
immigrant workers are most vulnerable to injury.
The
rule was first announced in 1997 and proposed in 1999 by OSHA after a ruling
by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission that OSHA’s existing
PPE standard could not be interpreted to require employers to pay for
protective equipment. The rule
proposed in 1999 did not impose any new obligations on employers to provide
safety equipment; it simply codified OSHA’s policy that employers, not
employees, have the responsibility to pay for it.
In
1999, OSHA promised to issue the final PPE rule in July 2000.
But it missed that deadline and has missed every self-imposed deadline
since. The agency has failed to
act in response to a 2003 petition by the AFL-CIO and UFCW and numerous
requests by the Hispanic Congressional Caucus.
“Of
course we now have to work hard to push OSHA to write a strong OSHA standard
that fully complies with the court decision,” said Mike Wright, director of
the USW Safety & Health Department.
Contact:
Alison Omens, AFL-CIO, (202) 637-5018
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