by Jessica Marpe | March 21, 2023 | News Releases
Harrisburg, PA- March 20, 2023 – State Senator Katie Muth (D-Chester/Montgomery/Berks), Chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, and House Democratic Policy Committee Chair Ryan Bizzarro (D-Erie) joined join Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia) and Rep. Patrick Harkins (D-Erie) to co-host a joint public hearing on legislation that would extend Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protections to public employees in Pennsylvania.
The hearing, held earlier today at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, featured two panels of testimony on both sides of the issue of extending OSHA protections to public employees in Pennsylvania.
“All Pennsylvanians deserve a safe workplace – and we need to make sure that we extend the critical workplace safety protections under OSHA to public employees across the Commonwealth,” Muth said. “There are so many public employees that put their lives on the line each and every day to protect our communities, to improve our roads, and to respond to emergencies – these individuals deserve better and they deserve workplace safety protections.”
OSHA was created in 1970 by the United States Congress to assure safe conditions for working men and women. OSHA covers most private sector employers and workers in all 50 states either directly through Federal OSHA or through an OSHA-approved state plan. Workplace health and safety protections under OSHA do not automatically cover public sector employees in state and municipal government.
“As we heard today, a workers right to know they are safe and protected at their jobs shouldn’t depend on who they work for,” said Senator Tartaglione. “We need to pass Senate Bill 93 to ensure Pennsylvanians all have OSHA protections regardless of their employer.”
States have to choose to extend these protections — and over half have already done so through OSHA-approved “state plans” that allow states to operate their own workplace health and safety programs covering public and/or private sector workers – Pennsylvania is not one of those states. Senator Tartaglione’s Senate Bill 93 would establish the Pennsylvania Occupational Safety and Health Review Board within the Department of Labor and Industry and extend OSHA safety rules to public employers.
“We have heard the outcry that municipalities can’t afford this, and my response has always been, what price are we placing on human life?” Rep. Pat Harkins said. “It’s truly a shame if we can’t afford to protect our workers. Where is the justice and where is the opportunity for justice? That’s why I’m pushing House Bill 299.”
Rep. Harkins has introduced House Bill 299 – the Jake Schwab Worker Safety Bill – which would also extend OSHA protections to public sector employees in Pennsylvania. Rep. Harkins’ bill was named in memory of Erie resident Jake Schwab who was fatally injured at work in 2014 working as a mechanic with the Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority, a public sector employer exempt from OSHA regulations.
“Today’s hearing shined a light on the need to ensure safety conditions for almost 600,000 public sector workers in Pennsylvania,” House Majority Policy Committee chairman Ryan Bizzarro said. “Public sector workers cannot and should not continue to be treated as second-class employees. The time has come to extend OSHA protections for all public sector workers.”
Participants in the hearing included Keith Wentz, Risk Management Director, County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania; Angela Ferritto, President, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO; Arthur Steinberg, President, Pennsylvania American Federation of Teachers; and J. David Henderson, Executive Director, AFSCME Council 13.
“Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania’s public sector workers don’t have the same safety protections that their private sector counterparts do for one simple reason: Federal OSHA standards don’t apply to the public sector. But in addition to not having the protection of OSHA safety standards and regular inspections, these workers don’t have the whistleblower protections that they need to protect them from retaliation if they report unsafe working conditions,” Senator Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) added. “That means an employee can be fired, have their hours reduced, or suffer other adverse consequences simply for using the only resource they have to stay safe on the job—their voice. We must do more to protect Pennsylvania’s public sector workers. That means extending OSHA standards to public sector workers and strengthening whistleblower protections for ALL employees, public and private sector.”
All submitted testimony from the policy hearing and the full video is available at SenatorMuth.com/Policy
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by Jessica Marpe | October 21, 2021 | News Releases
Philadelphia, Pa – October 21, 2021– Senator Christine M. Tartaglione, chairwoman of the PA Senate Labor and Industry Committee, today shared praise for Governor Wolf’s pro-worker agenda. The governor signed an executive order this morning calling for legislative action to create safer workplaces, promote higher wages and guarantee paid leave for workers. He encouraged the General Assembly to finally pass legislation that supports workers.
In response to the action and strong stance the governor is taking for workers, Senator Tartaglione issued the following statement:
“Today’s announcement from the Wolf Administration is a crucial first step in expanding worker protections and ensuring businesses that receive grants or contracts from the commonwealth provide family sustaining wages to all employees.
“Creating and maintaining family sustaining wages and expanding OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) protections have been the cornerstone of my legislative priorities. Governor Wolf’s actions today provide a great place to continue conversations regarding legislation, including SB12, a bill I introduced to raise the minimum wage for all workers across the commonwealth and SB310 which would expand OSHA protections to public sector employees.”
by Christin Brown | May 20, 2021 | News Releases
Harrisburg – May 20, 2021 – At the request of Senator Tina Tartaglione (D- Philadelphia), Democratic Chair of the Senate Committee on Labor & Industry, the Pennsylvania Democratic Policy Committee held a virtual public hearing to discuss Senate Bill 310 and OSHA protections for public employees.
“For more than 50 years, America’s private-sector employees and federal employees have benefitted from the safeguards and the peace of mind provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). It is a travesty that Pennsylvania’s public employees don’t have the same protections,” Senator Tartaglione said. “All workers have the right to a safe and healthy workplace, and they have a right to know they won’t face retribution when they speak out about deficient and dangerous conditions. My Senate Bill 310 would extend critical OSHA protections to all Pennsylvania workers.”
Senate Bill 310 would establish the Pennsylvania Occupational Safety and Health Review Board within the Department of Labor and Industry. Currently, Pennsylvania workers at state and local government agencies do not have Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protection. This proposed legislation would extend OSHA safety rules to public employees of the commonwealth, all legal political subdivisions, public schools, public transit systems, and non-profit organizations in Pennsylvania.
“Workers deserve to know that when they come to work, their health and safety is a priority and not an afterthought. No one should have to accept that life threatening conditions are just part of a job, and workers in every profession and field should have OSHA protections. I am proud to support Senate Bill 310, and I am so grateful to Senator Tartaglione for championing this bill in the Senate and making workplace protections a priority in our caucus,” Sen. Katie Muth (D- Berks/Chester/Montgomery), chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, said.
“According to the AFL-CIO Death on the Job Report, 8.1 million public sector workers lack OSHA protection nationwide. In 2019, their injury and illness rate were 64 percent higher than employees in the private sector,” Mike Maguire, Director of Political & Legislative Affairs at AFSCME Council 13, said. “Since the establishment of OSHA in 1971, more than 627,000 worker’s lives have been saved. Let’s extend those protections to our commonwealth’s public sector workforce.”
In opposition to the Senate Bill 310 were Keith Wentz, Manager of Risk Management & Underwriting at the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP), and Stuart Knade, Esq., Chief Legal Officer of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
Wentz noted in his testimony that he and his organization do not believe that further OSHA protections are needed for public employees because there are already voluntary safety boards and random inspections of facilities.
Knade said that implementing OSHA protections for public employees in Pennsylvania would be difficult because OSHA was not written with them in mind, creating issues with implementation. He also said that the implementation would be cost prohibitive.
Both Wentz and Knade agreed to continue further conversations with Senator Tartaglione on Senate Bill 310 and public employee protections.
“Costs actually go down when you make your workplace more safe,” Rick Bloomingdale, President of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, said. Bloomingdale said in his testimony that the same arguments that Wentz and Knade gave today were used in the 1970s when OSHA was first enacted. However, over the years, OSHA has proven to be a draw for employees and employers in the private sector.
Bloomingdale said that there is less employee turnover, higher morale, and less incidents leading to injury and need for workplace compensation because of OSHA regulations in private sector workplaces.
“According to the National AFL-CIO’s Annual Death on the Jobs report, in 2016, state and local public-sector employers reported an injury rate of 4.7 per 100 workers, which is significantly higher than the reported rate of 2.9 per 100 among private-sector workers,” Bloomingdale said.
Jeff Ney, Treasurer of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), explained in his testimony that teachers are also excluded from OSHA protections.
“Like me, so many public employees are shocked to learn that these basic protections don’t apply to them or to their place of employment,” Ney said. “The common-sense protections contained in SB 310 will also ensure that our students have a safe and healthy educational environment – which is the most basic and indispensable factor in fostering academic excellence. School employees’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.”
Maguire, of AFCME said in his testimony that workers are more than just resources, they are human beings and they deserve workplaces that treat them that way.
“This is the most important bill to AFCME,” concluded Maguire.
Below are all who participated in today’s hearing:
- Keith Wentz, Manager of Risk Management & Underwriting, County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP)
- Stuart Knade, Esq., Chief Legal Officer, Pennsylvania School Boards Association
- Rick Bloomingdale, President of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
- Mike Maguire, Director of Political & Legislative Affairs, AFSCME Council 13
- Jeff Ney, Treasurer, Pennsylvania State Education Association
- Dr. David Levine, UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business
Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D- Allegheny) also attended this hearing, as did Senators Anthony H. Williams (D- Philadelphia/Delaware), Lisa Boscola (D- Lehigh/Northampton), Lindsey Williams (D- Allegheny), John Kane (D- Chester/Delaware), and Amanda Cappelletti (D- Delaware/Montgomery).
The full recording of this roundtable, as well as the written testimony from participants, can be found at senatormuth.com/policy. A full recording of this hearing can also be found on the PA Senate Democratic Facebook page.
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