S /HR 2067 Protecting America's Workers Act (PAWA) by Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey

Description:

Click here for the Senate bill.  Click here for the House bill. 

In 2007, the Protecting America’s Workers Act was introduced as HR 2049.  The bill has been reintroduced As HR 2067 and retains the basic provisions in the earlier bill, such as: 
-- Expanding OSHA coverage to state, county, municipal, and federal employees who are not currently covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act).
-- Raising penalties for those who kill or endanger workers: Penalties in the current law are so weak that they do not provide a disincentive for employers to break the law. The bill updates OSHA civil penalties which been unchanged since 1990, and strengthens criminal penalties to make felony charges available in situations where an employer’s willful violation of the OSH Act results in a worker’s death or serious injury.
-- Expanding coverage for millions of other employees who work for airlines and railroads, as well as Department of Energy contractors, who are inadequately covered by other laws because their health and safety coverage is left to other government agencies that do not treat worker safety as a priority.
-- Providing improved protection for whistleblowers: The current law provides insufficient protections for employees who make complaints about job safety hazards. This bill gives employees the right to refuse hazardous work that may kill or seriously injure them. It also modernizes outdated whistleblower provisions by incorporating successful administrative procedures adopted in other laws, such as the Surface Transportation Act.
-- Improving the rights of workers and families: The bill requires OSHA to investigate all cases of death as well as serious incidents involving injuries. It gives victims and their families the right to meet with DOL investigators, and gives workers and their representatives greater rights in the enforcement system.

The updated version of the bill includes some changes from the 2007 bill. The new bill:
-- Prohibits employers from discouraging reporting by requiring that regulations on injury and illness recordkeeping include a prohibition on employer policies or practices that discourage the reporting of work-related injuries or illnesses by an employee
-- Clarifies that the time spent by a worker accompanying an inspector is considered ’time worked,’ which must be compensated.
-- Requires employers to abate violations for serious hazards during the time employer contests to a citation are being reviewed and resolved.
-- Increases civil penalties for violations to account for inflation and sets a mandatory minimum penalty for violations involving fatalities for small employers that is lower than the mandatory minimum for larger employers.
-- Omits the directive to OSHA to issue a final rule on employer payment for personal protective equipment (which was issued by OSHA in November 2007).
-- Provides effective dates for the provisions of the Act so that it takes effect 90 days after enactment, except that states with section 18 state plans are given 12 months to come into conformance, and states that do not have a state plan are given 36 months to comply.