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Protecting America's Workers Act (PAWA)

Background: Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) reintroduced the Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R.2067) with 32 co-sponsors at the end of April, and we expect a Senate companion bill to be introduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) soon. This legislation is a top priority for organized labor and key lawmakers that oversee the U.S. Department of Labor. It is in response to their belief that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) penalty structure is woefully inadequate.

The measure would:

• Institute minimum penalties of $50,000 per violation in the case of fatalities or serious injuries, with maximum penalties up to $250,000
• Increase maximum civil penalty from $70,000 to $100,000 and increase minimum civil penalty for a willful or repeat violation from $5,000 to $7,000
• Provide for felony (rather than misdemeanor) criminal sanctions for willful violations that lead to death or serious injury of a worker
• Increase imprisonment from minimum of 6 months to a minimum of 10 years for a first offense, and from a minimum of 1 year to a minimum of 20 years for any repeated offenses when a worker dies as the result of willful violations
• Institute new felony charges of a minimum sentence of 5 years for a first conviction and at least 10 years for any repeated offenses, if an employer’s willful violation results in serious bodily injury to an employee
• Define “serious bodily injury” as bodily injury that involves a substantial risk of death, protracted unconsciousness, protracted and obvious physical disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ or mental faculty
• Require employers to enhance their efforts to advise workers of their rights under OSHA

Impact: Civil and criminal penalties for OSHA violations would be significantly increased.  AFS is concerned that this bill arbitrarily increases fines on employers and increases civil penalties and imposes new criminal penalties which could land an employer or safety manager in jail, even if an employer was to do everything possible to prevent a workplace accident

Outlook: The House Education and Labor Committee held hearings pertaining to OSHA’s penalty system at the end of April. Under the Obama administration, we anticipate a much more activist OSHA on both the enforcement and regulatory fronts.

For more information, contact Stephanie Salmon, Metalcasting Industry Government Affairs Washington Office, at ssalmon@afsinc.org or 202/842-4864.