The Biden administration said Arizona appears to be “unable or unwilling” to protect workers at work and is taking steps to meet the state’s weak standards.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday that it intends to remove Arizona’s OSHA plan. Grand Canyon State is one of them More than 20 states manage their occupational safety programs with federal approval, through inspections by government officials. By law, a state plan must be “at least as effective” as a federal program. If this is not the case, federal officials may apply.
Doug Parker, the head of OSHA, appointed by President Joe Biden, said at a news conference that Arizona has shown contempt for federal requirements, including a new rule to protect health workers from COVID- 19. State plans are needed to implement their own version of the rule, and Arizona is one of three states that OSHA officials warn when they fail to do so.
But Parker said the problems in Arizona go back years.
“OSHA is asking Arizona … to reconsider the problems OSHA has identified over the past decade,” he said. “It doesn’t apply in any case. It covers a lot of problems over a period of time.”
A spokesman for the state-owned OSHA program, known as the Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health, was contacted immediately Wednesday.
Parker warned that repealing the state plan approval is a lengthy process that could have been avoided by the changes in Arizona. The trial began Wednesday when the Federal Register announced that OSHA intended to move forward with ending the state program. This will be followed by a period of public comment.
Wednesday’s move does not give federal officials authority to begin enforcing occupational safety standards in Arizona, even if it hasn’t. Parker said that if federal officials complete the cancellation of the plan, they will make enforcement.
“OSHA is asking Arizona to reconsider the problems OSHA has identified over the past decade.”
– Doug Parker, head of OSHA
As Jordan Barab, an occupational safety expert and former OSHA official, explained in his blog Confined Space, the elimination of the state plan is the last way to deal with rebel states and keep up with it. Some are negative.
In states that have their own security plans, federal and state governments share administrative costs. If federal OSHA were to enforce enforcement in Arizona, it could remove resources from an extended agency. The measure also excludes Arizona civil servants from OSHA coverage, meaning OSHA safety rules do not apply to their workplaces.
Arizona, along with South Carolina and Utah, has slowly succeeded in adopting the Biden administration’s COVID-19 safety rule for health care facilities. When OSHA notified the states in October, an Arizona official Told HuffPost That the state worked “honestly” to carry it out and was “surprised” by threats from federal officials.
Doug Duss, the state governor who is resilient to pandemic security measures, Called “A political ploy and desperate seizure of power”.
But federal officials say Arizona has not adopted other federal standards in a timely manner. According to OSHA, Arizona has not received penalty levels that meet federal law requirements or has not developed certain safety programs that accent OSHA requirements.
Officials also said Arizona did not tighten its fall protection rules until OSHA said it could repeal the state plan.
Source: Huffpost
