OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is undertaking a rulemaking effort directed toward requiring employers to establish injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2) to monitor and more effectively implement practices to mitigate workplace hazards, thereby reducing the incidence of employee injuries and illnesses. OSHA believes that widespread implementation of such programs will substantially improve overall workplace safety and health conditions.

The House Education and Labor Committee approved July 21 legislation that would increase criminal and civil penalties for OSHA violations, strengthen whistleblower protections and speed up hazard abatement. The Robert C. Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act (H.R. 5663), passed on a largely party line vote of 30-17, would also provide stronger enforcement tools to the Department of Labor to enforce mine safety regulations.

OSHA conducted a combustible dust web chat on Monday, June 28 2010. The transcripts of this web chat are available online at: http://www.dol.gov/dol/chat/chat-osha-20100628.htm  A copy of the transcript is attached.

Five provisions of the Protecting Americans Workers Act (PAWA), including tougher civil and criminal penalties for OSHA violations, have been attached to 100 pages of legislation primarily aimed at reforming the Mine Safety and Health Act. This new bill, the Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010 (H.R. 5663) was introduced in the House July 1. Leading members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives released a summary and discussion draft of the bill (both are attached below) on June 29, 2010.

More than 30 registered stakeholders gathered June 29 to discuss OSHA’s proposal to issue an injury and illness prevention program (I2P2) rule, the first of two such meetings to be held in the nation’s capital.

In a June 22, 2010 Federal Register Notice OSHA announced two additional stakeholder meetings to discuss  Injury and Illness Prevention Programs.  The two meetings will be held on July 20, 2010 in Washington DC and on August 3, 2010 in Sacramento, CA.  The deadlines to register are July 6 and July 20, 2010 respectively.

These two meetings are in addition to the June 3, 2010 East Brunswick, NJ meeting, the June 10, 2010 Dallas, TX meeting   and the June 29, 2010 Washington, DC meeting.

For more information please see the attached notice.