The Public Welfare Foundation’s Board of Directors met with David Michaels, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health in February to discuss ways to improve worker health and safety. Among the Foundation’s key areas of focus is Workers’ Rights. Its grantmaking in this area seeks to improve “standards for occupational health and safety, including measures to make health and safety regulatory bodies more responsive.”
Assistant Secretary Michaels (pictured at far right), an epidemiologist and nationally-recognized leader in the OSHA field, had previously been a grantee of the Foundation when he directed George Washington University’s Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy.
Michaels told the Board that he was both optimistic and realistic about the prospects for workplace reforms. He noted that the motto for the Labor Department under Secretary Hilda Solis and President Barack Obama is “Good Jobs for Everyone.” Among the most hopeful signs of progress, he said, is the fact that for the first time in many years, the views of employee advocates who are trying to make workplaces safer and healthier coincide with the views of those, like him, who are running the enforcement agencies.
But Michaels also cautioned that there are obstacles to overcome. The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has only 1,000 inspectors to monitor millions of workplaces across the country. At best, he said, the inspectors can get to a workplace “about once in decades.” In addition, he noted that the agency’s standards take “way too long” to promulgate, are often based on outdated science, and penalties for violating the standards are extremely low.
Despite a recent budget increase, Michaels cited the need for OSHA to look at different ways of being effective. The agency would like employers to assess the hazards in their workplaces and come up with plans to address them. And OSHA wants to increase the visibility of worker injuries, particularly those involving unskilled immigrant workers who are not likely to know the rules – or their rights – in dealing with workplace hazards.
He praised the Public Welfare Foundation for its grantmaking that seeks to involve grassroots organizations in these efforts. "It helps to have people [on the inside and the outside] who are...trying to make sure that when workers go to work in the morning, they can come home safely without being injured or killed," he said.
