About F%$#ing Time

After 10 years of ignoring the law. the Occupational Ssfety and Health Administration is moving to take over enforcement of workplace standards in Arizona.

Enforcement of such standards are usually largely the responsibility of the states, but when a state consistently refuses to enforce the law, the Feds have to step in:

After a decade of outright Arizona defiance on everything from protecting construction workers against falls to protecting nurses against the coronavirus, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has run out of patience and is proposing the drastic step of taking over job safety and health enforcement in the state.

The record is so bad, the feds said, that “together, the state” agency’s “actions suggest Arizona is either unable or unwilling to maintain its commitment to provide a program for employee safety and health protection,” the 36-page Federal Register notice, to be formally published the week of April 24, says.

The feds “may initiate revocation proceedings if a state plan does not maintain its commitment to provide a program for employee safety and health protection that meets the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and is at least as effective as the federal OSHA program in providing employee safety and health protection at covered workplaces,” federal OSHA’s draft adds.

 ………

Arizona’s failures are long-standing, the federal OSHA said. Indeed, the first warning signal came when the state endangered construction workers almost a decade ago. State legislators enacted SB1441, stating the state agency did not have to protect those workers against falls unless the workers toiled at least 15 feet off the ground.

OSHA’s standard, then and now, calls for fall protection for workers starting at six feet above the ground. But Arizona, at least initially, defied it. States must follow, or better, both that standard and other federal OSHA job protection standards.

Refusing to protect your workers is never more obvious than when your legislature PASSES A F%$#ING LAW instructing your enforcement agents to ignore the law.

This is long overdue.