Green Buckeye RN

Secret Risk Assessment Rule Aims to Halt Worker Safety Protections

The Bush administration is trying to rush through a Department of Labor (DOL) draft rule to require new worker safety standards to be based on a new risk assessment process that would potentially tie the hands of future administrations. The new rule was sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review in secret, violating the process OIRA has insisted agencies use for rulemaking.

The new rule would require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to alter their current risk assessment approaches and to take an additional step in the rulemaking process before a workplace safety rule can be proposed. The current process is the outgrowth of the legal requirements Congress put in place decades ago to ensure these two agencies adequately safeguard worker health.

Read the article at http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/4317/