New York – The US Labor Department is to reopen or cancel the rules of the more than 60 “obsolete” workplace, which ranges from minimum wage requirements to home health care workers and disabled people, from the standards coming into contact with harmful substances.
If approved, the comprehensive changes unveiled this month will also affect the status of working in construction sites and mines, and limit the government’s ability to punish the employers if workers are injured or killed, which are engaged in inherent activities such as film stunts or animal training.
The Labor Department says that the goal is to reduce the expensive, cumbersome rules imposed under the previous administration, and distribute the commitment of President Donald Trump to restore American prosperity through deragulation.
The Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-Dimerr said in a statement, “The labor department is proud to lead the way unnecessary rules, which prevent development and boundary opportunity.”
Critics say that the proposals will put the workers at greater risk of damage, an inconsistent impact with women and members of minority groups.
“People are already threatened to die on the job,” said Rebecca Rindel, Professional Safety and Health Director of AFL-CIO Union. “This is something that is only going to make the problem worse.”
There are several stages in proposed changes, before they can be effective, including a public comment period for each.
Here is some rollback to consider:
Home Health Care workers help elderly or medical delicate people, preparing food, helping drugs, assisting toilets, helping with customers for doctors appointments and doing other tasks. Under one of the proposals of the Labor Department, the estimated 3.7 million workers employed by home care agencies can be paid below the federal minimum wage – currently $ 7.25 per hour – and overtime salary has been disqualified for salary if they are not covered by this state laws.
The proposed Rules will reverse the changes made under former President Barack Obama in 2013 and will return to a regulatory structure from 1975. The Labor Department says that by reducing labor and compliance costs, its amendment can expand home care market and help keep weak people in their homes for a long time.
Judy Conti, director of government affairs in the National Employment Act Project, said that his organization has planned to work hard to defeat the proposal. Home health workers are subject to injuries from raising customers, and “before (2013) rules, it was very common for home care workers to work for 50, 60 and perhaps more hours a week, without any overtime salary,” Conti said.
Others support this proposal, including a conservative non -profit organization located in the independent women’s platform, Virginia. Women often take out the brunt of family care responsibilities, so making home care more cheap will help women balance work and personal responsibilities, said the group president Carrie Lucas.
Lucas said, “We are happy to see the Trump administration that whatever we have seen, leaving some of it behind, which was seen as a defendant micromeaning of relationships, people who need care that they need,” Lucas said.
Samantha Sanders, director of government affairs and advocacy at the Non -Group Economic Policy Institute, said that cancellation would not be a victory for women.
Sanders said, “We do not really think that they need safety that will be very disastrous for a task force that really do the necessary work and dominate women, and especially over women of color,” Sanders said.
Last year, the Labor Department finalized the rules that provide protection to the migrant farmwork that organized H -2A visas. The current administration says that most of those rules put unnecessary and expensive requirements on employers.
Under the new proposal, the Labor Department will cancel a requirement for transport provided by most employers to keep a seat belt for those agricultural laborers.
The department is also proposing to reverse a 2024 rule, which preserves migrant farm workers with vengeance for activities like filing, testifying or participating in investigation, or proceedings.
Lori Johnson, a senior advocate of Farmwork Justice, said, “There is a long history of vengeance against workers who speak against abuses in farm work. And it is worse with H -2A because the employer cannot just renew your visa.”
Michael Marsh, Chairman and CEO of the National Council of Agriculture Employees, said that farmers were killed in recent years with regulations of thousands of pages related to migrant farmwork.
“Can you imagine a farmer and his spouse that 3,000 new pages of regulation in 18 months are trying to navigate and then can be responsible for each of them?” He asked.
Professional Safety and Health Administration, part of the labor department, for employers want to cancel a requirement to provide adequate light at construction sites, stating that regulation does not reduce a significant risk.
OSHA said that if employers fail to fix the shortcomings of lighting in construction works, the agency may issue quotes under its “general duty clause”. Clauses require employers to provide space of free employment from recognized hazards that cause death or severe physical damage.
Worker advocates feel that getting rid of the need for a specific construction site is a bad idea. “Many are deadly where workers fall through a hole in the floor, where there is not enough lighting,” Rindel said. “This is a very clear thing that should be addressed to employers, but unfortunately it is one of the things where we need a standard, and it violates all the time.”
Many proposals can affect safety processes for mines. For example, employers have to submit plans for ventilation and stop the collapse of roof in coal mines for review by the Mines Department of Labor Department, Safety and Health Administration. Currently, MSHA district managers may require mine operators to take additional steps to improve those schemes.
The Labor Department wants to abolish that authority, saying that the current rules give the district manager the ability to draf laws and make laws without comments or action.
Similarly, the department is proposing to filter district managers of their capacity to district managers, which require changes in the mine health and safety training programs.
Normal duty clause allows osha to punish employers for unprotected working conditions when there is no specific standard to cover a situation.
An OSHA proposal will “exclude the clause from implementing the clause to restrict, restrict or punish employers for naturally risky professional activities that are internal for professional, athletic or entertainment businesses.”
An preliminary analysis identified athletes, actors, dancers, musicians, other entertainers and journalists who would apply to the boundary of workers of which.
“It is not only laudable to claim that when passing the Congress, Vocational Safety and Health Act, quietly intend to authorize the labor department to eliminate familiar sports and entertainment practices, such as pant returns in NFL, speed in NASCAR or whale shows in the sewal,” reads “reads.
Debbie Berkovitz, who served as the Osha Chief of Staff during the OSHA Chief of Staff during the Obama administration, said it would be a mistake to limit the agency’s enforcement authority.
“Once you start taking that danger away, you can return where they will throw security into the air, as they have other production pressure,” Berkovitz said.
