Status
On April 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued its Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process final rule. This rule allows two or more employees to authorize a third-party representative, such as an outside union representative or community organizer, to accompany an OSHA safety inspector into nonunion workplaces during site inspections. The final rule is effective on May 31.
Now, construction employees and employers could face serious safety concerns because the final rule has the potential to allow anyone onto a jobsite. There simply is no business case for this final rule and no benefit during a compliance inspection.
By allowing outside union agents access to nonunion employers’ private property, OSHA is injecting itself into labor-management disputes and casting doubt on its status as a neutral enforcer of the law. This final rule adversely impacts employers’ rights while ignoring the rights of the majority of employees who have not authorized a union to represent them.
OSHA’s rule also poses an unnecessary risk to the individual joining the inspection and others on the jobsite if the authorized person is not trained to walk a construction jobsite safely. The rule does not include any requirement that the authorized person be equipped or conduct themselves to the same standards as OSHA safety inspectors.
Further, the final rule fails to answer who is legally responsible if the third party gets injured during the inspection or harms someone else.
To learn more on the final rule, see ABC’s Newsline and press release, and ABC general counsel Littler Mendelson’s publication.
On Nov. 13, 2023, ABC submitted comments urging OSHA to withdraw its Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process proposed rule. Read ABC’s new release on the proposed rule. ABC also signed on to comments submitted by the Coalition for Workplace Safety and Construction Industry Safety Coalition.
On Sept. 26, 2023, ABC joined 40 Coalition for Workplace Safety members in sending a letter to the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, calling out OSHA for its proposed rule and the politicization of the agency that the rulemaking exemplifies. Read CWS’s press release.
On Feb. 21, 2013, OSHA issued a letter of interpretation endorsing union representatives and other nonemployee third parties accompanying OSHA inspectors on walkaround inspections at nonunion workplaces, which ABC adamantly opposed, expressing serious concerns. OSHA eventually rescinded the letter of interpretation on April 25, 2017.
Desired Outcome
ABC is deeply concerned that the Biden administration has moved forward with a failed Obama-era initiative, which does nothing to promote workplace safety and will have a substantial negative impact on the rights of employers and their employees.
OSHA can have a bigger impact on jobsite safety by fostering positive partnerships with employers and promoting safety practices that produce results.