Stakeholders are warning that OSHA faces a wave of impending whistleblower complaints about unsafe workplaces as businesses in some states begin to reopen after months of limited operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are urging the agency to devote more resources to processing virus-related complaints.
Worker advocates are urging OSHA to bolster protections for whistleblowers who report health and safety violations by speeding investigations of claims and supporting Democrats' proposals to improve protections, though a contractor says it would be more efficient to first identify whether some whistleblowers are just disgruntled employees.
House Democrats have reintroduced and expanded legislation seeking to strengthen the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act by covering additional workers and bolstering protections for whistleblowers while also enhancing penalties, though an employers’ attorney suggests the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate or reach the president’s desk.
The Labor Department’s Inspector General (OIG) is slated to release in fiscal year 2019 a broad series of inquiries into OSHA enforcement and regulatory practices, reviews that could aid Democrats who will control the House next year and are already planning significant oversight of the Trump administration's worker safety programs.
Labor groups are urging OSHA officials to investigate the agency's practices for responding to whistleblower complaints of retaliation in the financial sector to ensure agency staffing is adequate to ensure prompt resolution of complaints, as the Trump administration has dropped a committee that informed the agency's whistleblower policies.
OSHA is convening a public meeting next month to seek input on whistleblower issues in the finance industry as the agency's Inspector General (IG) is auditing the agency's Whistleblower Protection Program in the wake of failures to quickly address complaints related to banking giant Wells Fargo
The Labor Department's (DOL) Inspector General has launched an audit of OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program (WPP) in several Western states after mounting pressure from years of audits related to a major Wells Fargo prosecution as well as internal complaints from a former agency investigator.
Labor and public interest groups are faulting OSHA's recent pledge to support three committees that advise the agency's rulemaking and enforcement efforts as “disingenuous,” arguing that the agency has failed to fill the panels, including a construction advisory committee that has not met in more than a year and currently has no members.
Despite allowing its advisory committee on whistleblower protections to become defunct, OSHA is planning a series of public meetings to seek public input on protecting whistleblowers, with the first meeting on whistleblower protections in the railroad and trucking sectors scheduled for next month.
Dozens of labor and citizen groups are urging Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta to preserve committees that advise OSHA regarding the impact of the agency's policies and standards, charging that the Trump Labor Department (DOL) is “stalling, disbanding and allowing the lapse” of the committees that are critical to the agency.