Workers Rights

I spent a couple of days in Baltimore last week attending the National Council for Safety and Health Conference (National COSH). Part of my missionary training came from a former US-2 who served at Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) in Chicago. It was broadly focused on worker rights with a particular focus on wage theft as that is a big focus of IWJ.

Serving at AUMS means that I am connected to our local Labor-Religion Coalition (our Executive Director is a member of the Executive Board). Labor-Religion has a partnership with IWJ as an affiliated interfaith group. As one of their affiliates we were asked to send a representative to the COSH conference and I was the lucky one who got to go. I must say the experience was incredible and educational.

I may have been the only non-union person at the conference and many of the people have been to these conferences before. Even so I was not the only person learning what rights workers have. I will avoid going into details on most things to protect the workers involved. But if you are a worker covered under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) there are certain rights you should be aware of under Section 11 (C) of the OSH Act. This will get slightly confusing if I don't clear this up now. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is what investigates and protects workers under the OSH Act.

You are covered under OSHA if:

Private Sector Workers

Most employees in the nation come under OSHA's jurisdiction. OSHA covers private sector employers and employees in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and other U.S. jurisdictions either directly through Federal OSHA or through an OSHA-approved state program. State-run health and safety programs must be at least as effective as the Federal OSHA program. To find the contact information for the OSHA Federal or State Program office nearest you, see the Regional and Area Offices map.

State and Local Government Workers

Employees who work for state and local governments are not covered by Federal OSHA, but have OSH Act protections if they work in a state that has an OSHA-approved state program. Four additional states and one U.S. territory have OSHA approved plans that cover public sector employees only. This includes: Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and the Virgin Islands. Private sector workers in these four states and the Virgin Islands are covered by Federal OSHA.

Federal Government Workers

Federal agencies must have a safety and health program that meet the same standards as private employers. Although OSHA does not fine federal agencies, it does monitor federal agencies and responds to workers' complaints. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is covered by OSHA.

Not covered by the OSH Act:

• Self-employed;
• Immediate family members of farm employers that do not employ outside employees; and
• Workplace Hazards regulated by another Federal agency (for example, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Coast Guard).

SOURCE

Now that you know if you're protected under OSHA there are certain rights that you have that cannot be infringed upon. One of these is the right to report a workplace injury or illness. This right has historically been infringed upon by employers. But workers now have a new weapon in securing their rights. Deputy Assistant Secretary Richard Fairfax released a memo which can be found here. If you don't feel like reading it here is what it spells out in short:

1. If an employer retaliates against a worker for filing a report of an injury then they are in violation of section 11(C) of the OSH Act. Discipline for reporting an injury is illegal.
2. If an employer disciplines an employee for not reporting an injury in a timely manner or in a manner against the employers reporting rules they could be in violation of section 11(C) if the employers rules are deemed to be a pretext to discipline workers. Employers do have a legitimate interest to set up rules for reporting and timetables for reporting but they cannot discipline an employee for untimely reporting if the employee did not realize right away that they were injured seriously enough to file a report or even that they were injured at all until a later time. 
3. If an employer disciplines an employee for getting injured because they broke a workplace safety rule they could be in violation of section 11(C) if they only punish employees for breaking the safety rule if they get hurt but ignore cases of employees breaking the rule if no injury results from their action. Also, there could be a violation of section 11(C) if the safety rule is purposely vague (Work Carefully) and used solely as a pretext to punish employees who get hurt.
4. If an employer sets up a program that intentionally or unintentionally provides employees with incentives to not report an injury. These programs are widely used by employers and could result in an employees name being taken out of a drawing for a prize if they report an injury or having a prize amount reset for all workers if an employee reports an injury (this turns workers on others). 

This last point is apparently extremely rampant. An airline (who shall not be named) uses the incentive of having your name enter into a drawing to win a new car if you don't report an illness or injury or call in sick for a period of 6 months. They give away two cars a year. While it may seem at first like this encourages workers to act safely what it really does is put workers into harms way. This policy discourages workers (again, airline workers) from taking time off when they are sick and allowing them to infect other workers and passengers so that they can possibly win a car. This "Safety Policy" creates an unsafe working condition and appears to be illegal under section 11(C) of the OSH Act. 

You should also be allowed to work in the safest conditions possible. If you know that your work conditions can be unsafe you should start recording things that seem to create unsafe working conditions. Document hazards in your workplace and talk to coworkers about anything they've noticed. Once you've come up with a list of hazards and hopefully some support among your coworkers come up with possible solutions to the hazards. It is always best to see if you can get rid of the hazard first. Then take your list of hazards and solutions to your employer and document that they have received your concerns and recommendations. 

If you feel you have been discriminated against for reporting a workplace injury or illness you have 30 days to file a report with OSHA. Make sure you document exactly what happened in detail. Get things in writing if you can or create a log of what was said to you and who said it. You can see what options you have to file a complaint with OSHA by clicking this link. 

Finally, could you take the time to sign a petition to support staff at Rutgers University who were forced to report to work during Hurricane Sandy and are seeking fair payment for the time spent working through a crisis as well as excused absence from work for non-essential staff who did not report to work due to the Hurricane. You can read and sign the petition here.