SEARCH
Labor FY 2010 Budget Will Protect Workers. What a Concept |
|
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told two congressional committees this week that the Department of Labor’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget will
restore capacity in our worker protection programs, which have languished for years.
Appearing in separate hearings before the Senate and House Appropriations committees’ Labor, Health and Human Services and Education subcommittees, Solis said the department’s budget—including a 10 percent increase for worker protection programs—will fund three priorities:
- Renewed capacity of programs that protect workers’ safety and health, pay and benefits;
- New and innovative ways to promote economic recovery and the competitiveness of our nation’s workers; and
- Carrying out programs in a way that is accountable and transparent to the public and our stakeholders.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said the budget will allow
significant improvements in labor protections and workplace safety and health.
At the House hearing, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said during the past eight years, the department relied far too heavily on voluntary employer compliance programs for workplace safety and other worker protections.
Your budget makes it clear that your department is in competent hands.
Solis said the proposed funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will
restore OSHA’s capacity to enforce statutory protections, provide technical support, promulgate safety and health standards, and strengthen safety and health statistics.
The increased funding for worker protection programs, Solis said, will allow the department to hire an additional
- 130 safety and health inspectors (a 10 percent increase from FY 2009);
- 25 whistle-blower investigators (a 33 percent increase);
- 13 full-time employees to strengthen OSHA’s capacity to quickly respond to the sudden emergence of safety and health hazards, such as a pandemic influenza;
- 20 full-time employees to restore OSHA’s rule-making capabilities, allowing the agency to simultaneously address multiple complex longstanding and emerging regulatory issues.
Solis told the committees the budget request for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)—including funds to hire 15 new inspectors for metal and nonmetal mines—will allow MSHA to
ensure a 100 percent completion rate for all mandatory safety and health inspections; support MSHA’s enhanced enforcement initiatives, which target patterns of violation, flagrant violators, and scofflaws.
In March, a report from the Government Accountability office (GAO) found the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division under the Bush administration had a pattern of failing to investigate worker complaints of employer wage theft. The report followed up two earlier GAO investigations outlining the Wage and Hour Division’s failure to investigate worker complaints of employer wage violations.
Solis told the panels that the Wage and Hour Division’s budget includes a $35 million increase over the last Bush budget and allows the hiring of 288 more inspectors to
help revive its customer service focus by supporting improved complaint intake and more in-depth complaint investigation processes. In FY 2010, the Wage and Hour Division will hire additional investigators to strengthen enforcement resources on behalf of vulnerable workers; verify future compliance of prior violators; and conduct high quality, responsive complaint investigations strategically, to increase protections for the greatest number of workers.
1 Comment
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Thank goodness for Secretary Solis. Health care workers, including the unregulated assisted living industry, routinely handle body fluids and feces. Our patients carry CDif and MERSA. With only a 3 week Red Cross certification we dispense medication, supervise insulin injections, provide colostomy care, take urine, feces and sputum samples, and the list goes on. We work with only a pair of gloves!! There are no Red Contaminated Materials collection bins. Used insulin syringes, infusion tubing, wound dressings… are thrown out in open waste baskets. We handle all this without knowing the health status of our patients. Although we have the right to know about the health of our patients when we are providing direct care this information is withheld from us.
Personally, I have had 4 staph infections in 12 months. The 1st infection was under the tip of my nose. The 2nd infection accompanied a corneal ulcer. The 3rd was a sinus infection. The last an infected great toe! In all I’ve been on 5 antibiotics in the past 12 months. I haven’t missed 1 day of work because of this. I can’t afford it. Secretary Solis strengthen OSHA and extend safety standards more rigorously in assisted living and nursing home settings.
Assisted living facilities are virtually unregulated. They are no longer a place for the active 60’s. Residents are in their 80’s & 90’s and are frail with serious, time consuming skilled nursing care which they are not getting. People even die with hospice in assisted living facilities. These places are not your mother’s swinging retirement communities. It’s about time regulations are in place and staff and patients provided with the protection and services we need.