AFL-CIO Blames Bush
Sue OSHA on Lack Of Protective Gear

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The AFL-CIO and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) sued the U.S. Department of Labor Jan. 3 over its failure to codify a long-standing policy that requires employers to pay for personal protective equipment for workers.

JOHN SWEENEY: Fed up with OSHA stalling.

The unions charged that the PPE rule had been delayed for nearly eight years because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration missed all its self-imposed deadlines since the issue surfaced in 1999.

Puts Onus on Employers

The lawsuit asserted that the Bush Administration's failure to act imperiled some 20 million workers. The OSHA standard would require employers to pay the costs of protective clothing, lifelines, face guards, gloves and other equipment used to shield workers from job hazards, instead of leaving the rule open to interpretation, as it is now.

A Department of Labor spokeswoman e-mailed a written response when asked to comment on the lawsuit.

"The case, which has not fully been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Labor, clearly deals with complicated issues that will affect different employers and employees in a variety of ways," she wrote. "The Department takes pride in its excellent safety and enforcement record for workers, but on this issue a number of public comments we received take issue with the factual assumptions in our proposed rule."

According to OSHA estimates, 400,000 workers were injured and 50 died due to the absence of this rule. The AFL-CIO and UFCW said that workers in some of America's most dangerous industries, such as meatpacking, poultry and construction, and low-wage and immigrant workers who suffer high injury rates, are sometimes forced to pay for their own safety gear - or go without - because of OSHA's reluctance to codify the PPE rule.

Sweeney Slams Bush

"The Bush Administration's failure to implement even this most basic safety rule spotlights how it has turned its back on workers in this country," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a written statement. "Too many workers have already been hurt or killed. The Bush Department of Labor should stop looking out for corporate interests at the expense of workers' safety and health on the job."

The PPE rule was proposed in 1999 after OSHA's Review Commission decided that existing standards didn't clearly indicate employers were responsible for providing safety gear.

OSHA promised to issue the final PPE rule in July 2000. But it missed that deadline, and every subsequent deadline. The agency failed to act in response to a 2003 petition by the AFL-CIO and UFCW and numerous requests by the Hispanic Congressional Caucus. The lawsuit filed last week called the delays "egregious."

'Nothing Stopping Them'

Joseph Hansen, UFCW International President, said "nothing is standing in the way of OSHA issuing a final PPE rule except the will to do so."

He said a decision was long overdue and "now, we are asking the courts to force OSHA to act."

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asks the court to issue an order directing the Secretary of Labor to complete the PPE rule within 60 days.