Capitol Hill

As part of the roofing industry, you are aware of the enormous effect the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has on regulating workplaces. And in past years, OSHA has received mixed reviews from the business community because of a widely held view that the agency was penalizing businesses rather than working with them to improve employee safety and health.

But that impression is beginning to change. Since President Bush named John Henshaw to oversee OSHA in June 2001, the agency has received widespread praise from a broad range of industries. The primary reason for the new perception is that Henshaw has placed compliance assistance, education and partnership at the top of OSHA's priority list. Henshaw is quick to point out that negligent employers should not take the new direction as a sign that OSHA intends to weaken or deviate from its mandate to improve workplace safety and protect U.S. workers. Rather, Henshaw believes that only through cooperative efforts will government and businesses achieve their goal of safe, healthy workplaces.

Following are several examples of OSHA's new mindset.

Reorganization

In 2002, Henshaw announced an ambitious realignment and restructuring of the agency. The reorganization features the creation of an Office of Small Business and compliance assistance section called the Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, which formalizes OSHA's efforts to expand compliance, training, outreach and education programs.

Another feature of the reorganization is the consolidation of the Directorates of Safety and Health Standards into a unified organization to address regulatory and nonregulatory approaches to safety and health standards and guidelines. The change was made to streamline OSHA's rulemaking by integrating all safety and health standard development activities within one organization.

Partnership

In November 2002, OSHA and the Small Business Administration (SBA) pledged to work together to help small businesses reduce their ergonomics hazards through increased outreach and education. According to the agreement, OSHA and SBA established a process to distribute ergonomics program information to small businesses. The agencies also will create a referral procedure to submit small-business input about industry and task-specific ergonomics guidelines.

Training centers

In another substantive move, in December 2002, OSHA introduced 20 Training Institute Education Centers. This almost doubles the number of centers that currently offer OSHA training courses.

The 20 new centers primarily are responsible for training private-sector personnel and federal personnel from agencies outside OSHA but also will help the agency administer the OSHA Outreach Training Program, the agency's principal manner to train workers in occupational safety and health basics.

Through the program, individuals who complete a one-week OSHA trainer course are authorized to teach 10- or 30-hour courses about construction or general industry safety and health standards. These individuals go on to train thousands more students each year. In fiscal year 2002, 254,000 people received training from the train-the-trainer program.

Similarly, NRCA has earned an OSHA Institutional Competency Building Grant. The grant has paid for the development of a train-the-trainer seminar; materials related to the training seminar; and training materials for the new trainers to use, including a video.

So far, about 200 roofing contracting companies have sent representatives to the train-the-trainer seminar.

Clinton initiative

When the Department of Labor released its regulatory agenda for 2003, industry observers were pleasantly surprised by an important omission. Not included on this year's to-do list is a controversial proposal that would have required all employers to implement injury and illness prevention programs at their work sites. As originally proposed by the Clinton administration, the rule would have affected all areas of workplaces and applied to ergonomics and indoor air-quality considerations.

Henshaw states that though the agency decided not to pursue rulemaking for the Clinton administration's safety and health program standard, OSHA will continue to work on this issue by exploring more practical regulatory and nonregulatory alternatives.

NRCA was part of the effort to eliminate the rulemaking from OSHA's docket and will continue to work with OSHA to serve the roofing industry.

R. Craig Silvertooth is NRCA's director of federal affairs.