President Obama Dec. 23 signed into a law a $1 trillion appropriations bill (H.R. 2055) that funds the Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies for fiscal year 2012. The measure also restricts the DOL from implementing rules on H-2B wages and musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) reporting requirements.
Under the MSD proposed rule, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Form 300 would have been revised to include an additional reporting column for MSDs. ABC opposed the change due to the vague and subjective definition of what would constitute an MSD, in addition to the hardships it would impose on businesses. OSHA
temporarily withdrew the proposal in January 2011 to gather more feedback from small businesses; now, it will be prohibited from pursuing the proposal in fiscal year 2012.
The second restriction stops the DOL from implementing a
final rule issued in January 2011 that would have replaced the current methodology for establishing wage rates for H-2B temporary workers with a system emphasizing Davis-Bacon Act wage determinations. The original effective date was Jan. 1, 2012. ABC opposed implementation due to its substantial cost, as well as the unscientific methodology used by DOL’s Wage and Hour division to establish Davis-Bacon Act rates that often inflate local wages.