Where is the oversight?
We teach our children that online shaming and bullying are not acceptable. Sadly, our congress fails to require similar standards of decency from the executive branch regulatory agencies.
On May 11, 2016, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released the final Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Rule.
We testified against several provisions of this rule on January 10, 2014.
We are over 4 hours invested into our trying to get through the 273 pages of the federal register notice regarding the change of rule. On page 239, OSHA handily dismisses our time estimate of 4 hours of professional time to understand the rule as “inflated.”
Here is what NAM’s Vice President for Policy, Rosario Palmeri had to say about this rule:
“Today, this administration put a target on nearly every company and manufacturer in the United States. Manufacturers are supportive of regulations aimed at increasing transparency, and we pride ourselves on creating safe workplaces for the men and women who make things in America. However, this regulation will lead to the unfair and unnecessary public shaming of these businesses. This is a misguided attempt at transparency that sacrifices employee and employer privacy, allows for distribution of proprietary information and creates burdens for all manufacturers. We will look at all options to protect manufacturers from this certain threat to the modern shop floor.”
Imagine if we had a regulatory climate where good policy and collaboration, rather than bullying and shaming of employers were the real work product.
Sadly, manufacturers continue to be the target for regulatory bullying and shaming, increasing the adversarial and punitive nature of workplace safety.
When the focus is strictly on compliance because of enforcement risk, the employer’s focus becomes defense, not on establishing best practices and innovatioon. Management of regulatory risk becomes paramount. Resources are diverted to documentation and duplicative efforts to assure inspections are passed, rather than nurturing a holistic culture of safety.
Shaming as public policy and regulatory protocol? How can these possibly improve safety outcomes?
What can employers expect next, stocks in the public square? When did shaming become acceptable government policy?
Ashamed dog photo Link
