A U.S. House of Representatives Workforce Protections Subcommittee oversight hearing of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on July 24 raised concerns about the agency’s proposed heat illness rule. Those concerns included that the rule was being rushed and that it places undue burdens on employers.
However, some said the rule is needed to protect workers and defended the agency’s rulemaking.
A worker, Gabriel Infante, started showing signs of heatstroke on the job in San Antonio last year, but his employer allegedly thought he was on drugs, said Jordan Barab, a witness and former deputy assistant secretary of OSHA from Takoma Park, Md., in written testimony. By the time the employer realized Infante needed help, it was too late, according to Barab.
“Gabriel Infante would be alive today if the heat standard was in place,” Barab testified. “OSHA standards save lives.”
OSHA on July 2 issued a proposed rule to shield indoor and outdoor workers from heat illness.
Felicia Watson, a hearing witness and attorney at Littler in Washington, D.C., shared three concerns about the proposed rule. First, she said that the rulemaking process had “become perfunctory.”
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