Congressional Democrats continue to pressure OSHA to enhance its enforcement activities.  On April 29, 2008, the Majority Staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (”HELP”) Committee published a report, “Discounting Death:  OSHA’s Failure to Punish Safety Violations that Kill Workers.”

The Committee made the following findings in its report:

• Current enforcement tools OSHA has at its disposal - a maximum prison sentence of six months and a maximum civil penalty of $70,000 - are inadequate when compared to other regulations. In particular, the maximum prison sentence is lower than the sentence for mail fraud, improperly hunting migratory or wild birds, dealing in counterfeit obligations, operating certain criminal financial enterprises, and piracy. The maximum penalty is lower than civil penalties under the South Pacific Tuna Act, the Fluid Milk Promotion Act, and the Clean Air Act.
• OSHA conducts lenient enforcement efforts. In particular, OSHA reduces the initial penalty imposed on employers by almost 40%, lowers the classification of citations more than 20% of the time, and rarely seeks criminal prosecution on the worst offenders.
• OSHA has not collected $27.5 million in assessed penalties in fatality cases, or almost one half of such penalties.

OSHA has conducted follow-up inspections on only 514 of the 2,007 employers or establishments (25.6%) targeted in the Enhanced Enforcement Program. For more details regarding OSHA’s revised Enhanced Enforcement Program, please consult a prior Washington Labor & Employment Wire article.

For more details regarding Democrats’ other recent efforts, please consult a recent Washington Labor & Employment Wire post.