Chamber Urges House Support of OSHA Bills

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce urged lawmakers to support four narrow occupational safety and health reform initiatives, H.R. 2728, H.R. 2729, H.R. 2730 and H.R. 2731, which will go a long way to help protect small employers against frivolous OSHA citations and to reduce regulatory burdens without sacrificing health and safety protections.

"These are common sense reforms that will make important improvements in the way small businesses work with OSHA," said Randel Johnson, Chamber vice president of labor policy. "The measures are a good first step to give small businesses better ways to contest questionable citations, recoup fees and expedite the appeals process."

H.R. 2728, the Occupational Safety and Health Small Business Day in Court Act – Under current law, if an employer fails to appeal an OSHA citation within 15 days, he or she forever loses the opportunity to contest the citation, even if the employer provides reasonable justification for missing the 15-day deadline. The bill provides the OSHA Review Commission flexibility in applying the 15-day period in which employers can contest citations, reducing the chance that employers are deprived of their day in court based on a technicality.

H.R. 2729, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission Efficiency Act – When an employer contests an OSHA citation, it can be years before the OSHA Review Commission will hear the case because of case backlogs. The legislation seeks to reduce this delay by expanding the number of sitting OSHA Review Commission members.

H.R. 2730, the Occupational Safety and Health Independent Review of OSHA Citations Act – Currently, OSHA's interpretations of the law are given strong deference by the courts, even though Congress originally intended the OSHA Review Commission to be given such deference so it could serve as a "check" on OSHA. The bill seeks to remedy this by having courts defer to the Review Commission, rather than OSHA, on legal matters.

H.R. 2731, the Occupational Safety and Health Small Employer Access to Justice Act – It is hard for small employers to recover attorneys' fees even when they have successfully defended against an OSHA citation. The measure would ensure small employers recoup their attorneys' fees each time they successfully contest an OSHA citation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

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