Tales from the Front: September 24 SBA OSHA/MSHA Roundtable
The SBA Office of Advocacy’s OSHA/MSHA Roundtable meets regularly in Washington, DC, to discuss the impact of rulemaking on small businesses.
Heidi Hansen from the Law Office of Adele Abrams, ASE’s Federal Representative, attended the SBA OSHA/MSHA Roundtable on Friday, September 24, 2010 in Washington, DC. Bruce Lundegren of the SBA Office of Advocacy was the moderator; guest speakers included Dr. Winslow Sargeant, recently appointed Chief Counsel for Advocacy for SBA; Michele Myers Mihelic of the American Wind Energy Association; and Marc Freedman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Sargeant spoke briefly on the role of the SBA Office of Advocacy and how he felt that OIRA and SBA Advocacy will have a strong relationship. He informed the group of his background in start-up small businesses, and that while he is on a steep learning curve he does have a background in regulatory issues. He encouraged everyone to feel free to provide input on any issue facing the small businesses and the Office of Advocacy. Dr. Sargeant especially encouraged solutions to problems.
Ray Sinclair from NIOSH was attending the meeting, so Mr. Lundegren offered the floor to him to explain his department at NIOSH, Small Business Assistance and Outreach. His said that a big part of his department is research and doing cost benefit analysis. Mr. Sinclair stated that NIOSH had recently hired a couple of additional economists to help NIOSH determine costs for working safely.
Michele Myers Mihelic gave a power-point presentation on the wind energy industry. There are currently 85,000 wind energy employees. She noted that most members of AWEA are not educated in how OSHA applies to them, so her organization is working on improving safety and health training. There are several dangers that are high risk, such as falls, rescue, confined space, and environmental (weather, animals). Ms. Mihelic noted that the industry does not have its own NAICS code and therefore does not have any reliable data on occupational illness and injuries. AWEA is encouraging employees to take ownership of safety and health. Additionally, it is creating industry specific OSHA 10 and 30 hour courses, as well as working on making an Alliance with OSHA.
Marc Freedman addressed the status of H.R. 5663, the mine/occupational safety and health bill introduced by the House in July. He said there was a lot of discussion on the Hill as to whether the bill will become an MSHA-only bill, with all the OSHA provisions taken out. According to Mr. Freedman, the Republicans and Democrats are not able to come to agreement on this bill and he said the process seems to have broken down. Mr. Freedman stated unequivocally that the Chamber of Commerce opposes all of the OSHA provisions in the bill.
There was a brief discussion on OSHA’s proposed rule on Consultation Agreements. There was concern that the rule suggests that there will be more reportage on violations found when a business requests a safety consultation with OSHA. Mr. Freedman said that there used to be a firewall between a consultation and the inspection process; if that no longer exists, he wonders why any business would want to be a part of the consultation process.
The SBA OSHA/MSHA Safety Roundtable will be on November 19, 2010.