Michigan Regulatory Reinvention Report Targets Safety Rules
Michigan’s Office of Regulatory Reinvention released a report, “Recommendations of the Office of Regulatory Reinvention Regarding Workplace Safety Regulations” calling for changing more than 300 Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) rules exceeding federal regulations and eliminating more than 6oo other MIOSHA requirements. Michigan news sources report that Governor Snyder has reviewed the report and asked that MIOSHA and the ORR implement the recommendations. You can see the report at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/lara/ORR_Workplace_Safety_Recommendations_379045_7.pdf The following is a summary of its recommendations, from the report –
Recommendation #1 – MIOSHA Standards Commissions: Eliminate the Construction Safety, General Industry, and Occupational Health Standards Commissions and assign the Director of LARA the responsibility for developing or revising standards with the support of advisory committees composed of individuals representing the specific industries, employees and citizens impacted by the standards.
Recommendation #2 – Clear and Convincing Standard for Exceeding Federal Standards: Amend MCL 408.1014 to define what constitutes a “clear and convincing need”. The revised definition could potentially require an explanation of the unique characteristics of Michigan industry that necessitate unique regulation or allow for petition by a specific industry.
Recommendation #3 – Standards Improvement Project: MIOSHA should update its rules to comply with OSHA’s Standards Improvement Project. Completion of this project will remove requirements that are confusing, outdated, duplicative, or inconsistent, and will ensure that MIOSHA’s rules are consistent with the federal standards.
Recommendation #4 – Qualification, Training and Permit Requirements: As long as a standard requires an employer to limit the use of the equipment to a trained and qualified employee to operate the equipment (as in R 408.11855), the separate rule within the standard specifying qualifications of the employee should be rescinded (as in R 408.11851). In place of a permit requirement, a standard should contain the following provision, “An employer shall be able to demonstrate that an employee is trained and qualified to operate [the equipment] prior to authorizing the employee to operate [the equipment]. A permit system may be used to comply with this rule.”
Recommendation #5 – Confined Spaces in Agricultural Operations: MIOSHA should engage with the agricultural community to evaluate the best way to regulate confined spaces in agricultural operations given that the relevant rules were accidentally rescinded.
Recommendation #6 – Federal Standards Currently Under Review: MIOSHA should pursue a review of state rules, once the federal government has completed its review of the following standards: Occupational Health Standard Part 301 – Air Contaminants, Occupational Health Standard Part 601 – Air Contaminants for Construction, and Occupational Health Standard Part 622 – Control Measures for Hazardous Atmospheres.
Recommendation # 7 – MIOSHA Rule Requests That Exceed Federal Standards – MIOSHA should withdraw pending rule requests which include rules that exceed federal standards. If MIOSHA would like to update the existing rule set, they could proceed through the rule promulgation process within the confines of the federal standards.
Recommendation #8 – MIOSHA Rule Sets to be Included with the Michigan Administrative Code: MIOSHA should move all rule sets under the Michigan Administrative Code (except for those recommended for rescission).
Recommendation #9 – Diving Operations: MIOSHA should review the various Diving Operations standards to potentially combine all of them into one standard, which should not exceed federal standards.