-----Original Message----- From: James Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, July 09, 1998 7:34 AM Subject: [PEN-L:169] Re: Safety at work - talking the language of business >the US OSHA has been a scam in a lot of ways since it started. Initially, >all it did was use the already-existing industry standards for health and >safety. It's also always had insufficient staffing. OSHA gets tough in >response to pressure, i.e., from unions or lawsuits. I think this is in the nature of blaming the victim. OSHA came under fierce attack from business groups from its inception and was kept busy fighting lawsuit after lawsuit filed by employer groups to strike down the regulations - ie revised safety and health standards - it proposed. The attack also extended to insufficient funding which then leads to insufficient staffing. The third problem has been trying to mesh standards of scientific proof with the evidentiary and legal standards required under the Administrative Procedure Act (the law that governs how US administrative agencies promulgate regulations) and the Rules of Evidence. In other words, lawyers and judges in particular (and especially those at the court of appeals level who are unlikely to have any training in science) have often talked past scientists who and not understood scientific proof. Throughout much of OSHA's history review has been by federal judges appointed by the Reagan / Bush administrations - not exactly friends to either government regulation or workplace regulation. When you read the Ct. of Appeals decisions it's maddening to see useful and reasonable regulations struck down for fairly technical reasons, resulting in enormous delays and even a decision to give in. One key failure of the statute as drafted has been the failure to give standing either to employees or unions to take an active role in the key initial parts of OSHA cases. Ellen Dannin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:172] Re: Re: Safety at work - talking the language of business
Ellen Dannin Thu, 9 Jul 1998 09:16:12 -0700charset="iso-8859-1"