Worker safety still at risk

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

A congressional committee last summer took testimony on the rash of deaths at Las Vegas Strip construction sites. Members of Congress called for an overhaul of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and legislation is expected to be introduced this year that would make dramatic changes in the agency.

Adding to that, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis on Tuesday told Congress that safety enforcement would become “more robust” in President Barack Obama’s administration, adding that she has plans to hire more safety inspectors.

That is good news that, together with Congress’ interest, could result in significant improvements in workplace safety in the near future for much of the nation. Although those changes are certainly needed, they will likely have little effect here because the state has its own OSHA, which has jurisdiction over most work sites in Nevada.

Federal law allows states to run their own safety agencies, as long as they meet minimum federal standards. When Congress debated the law nearly 40 years ago, lawmakers expressed the hope that states would have a better understanding of their own industries and be able to tailor safety programs to address unique situations. But that hope has largely been unfulfilled in the 24 states that have their own programs.

Nevada OSHA, for example, has been understaffed and underfunded. The agency clearly couldn’t keep up with the construction boom on the Strip and was painfully slow to respond to the rash of accidents. Instead of taking a strong stance on enforcement, the agency had routinely reduced or waived contractors’ fines and penalties for serious safety violations, including those involving death.

Stories last year by the Las Vegas Sun’s Alexandra Berzon exposing the situation led OSHA to change its practices. As the Sun continued to write and editorialize about what was happening, the string of deaths on the Strip ended. But that hasn’t diminished the need for a radical improvement in workplace safety in Nevada. The responsibility for doing that lies in the hands of Gov. Jim Gibbons and the state Legislature. Unfortunately, legislative attempts to improve Nevada OSHA are falling flat in the face of opposition from Gibbons and the big business lobby.

State Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, wanted to give the agency more independence by putting it under the auspices of an appointed board of directors. Carlton has been concerned about the cozy relationships between some of the state’s big businesses and regulators. Nevada OSHA had been criticized by its federal counterpart because of its irregular handling of one investigation in an accident off the Strip, which included a high-ranking political appointee calling a meeting between state investigators and representatives of a business accused of violating safety regulations.

“We were trying to get OSHA out from underneath all this political pressure,” Carlton said. “We know the system now isn’t working.”

Carlton’s proposal ran into stiff opposition from not only business interests but also the state Industrial Relations Division, which oversees Nevada OSHA.

The Industrial Relations Division says it “promotes and enforces safety in the workplace,” yet division spokeswoman Elisabeth Shurtleff told the Sun there were concerns about the “fiscal impact” of Carlton’s bill — even though the total cost appeared to be relatively small.

The division should be promoting changes that improve worker safety, but it torpedoed the bill. Carlton withdrew her plan and offered a measure that would require OSHA to give families of dead workers more information about its investigations of accidents. Carlton says the measure “holds OSHA’s feet to the fire” by making investigations more transparent.

Carlton acknowledges that the legislation doesn’t go very far, calling it “a small step,” but she hopes it will pave a path to changes in the next Legislature. Carlton was trying to make the best of a frustrating political reality after realizing she couldn’t find the support to make any big changes this session.

It is disgraceful that there isn’t an groundswell of support for an overhaul of Nevada OSHA. The 12 deaths on Strip construction sites in an 18-month period are a clear sign of the need to overhaul the state’s anemic worker safety system. Why don’t the Republican governor and Democratic-led Legislature see that?

Congress and the federal government have acknowledged the problems in the nation’s worker safety system and are moving to correct them. Nevada, however, is still in a state of denial. This is a life-and-death issue and change needs to be made to protect working Nevadans.

If the Legislature can’t muster the decency to do the right thing and make the necessary changes to Nevada OSHA, it should get out of the business of worker safety and relinquish control to the federal government.