Public Employees Killed by Preventable Hazards. And It’s all Legal

Imagine you’re recruited for a job with a bunch of other workers. It’s a job with lots of hazards — machinery, fork-lifts, trenches, working at heights —  but all the hazards are covered by strict OSHA standards.  The supervisor comes in and divides the group into two sections.

And then announces: “We are not well funded on this job, so Group One, you will be protected by all OSHA standards. Group Two, not so much.  You’re doing the same work as Group One, but we don’t have funding for complying with OSHA standards for you all. So just be careful out there. And remember everyone, we’re on a tight deadline. So let’s get to work!”

Sound crazy?

Welcome to the weird world of OSHA.

Here we are in 21st century America, more than 50 years after the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, and there are still almost 8 million workers who have been consigned to Group Two: this country’s public employees. The ones who work on our roads, fix our water systems, work in parks and sewage treatments plants, oversee prisoners, mental health patients and work in public hospitals.

Why? Not because they do different or less dangerous work than private sector employees. Not because they’re less careful at the job. And not because they don’t get injured or killed as often as private sector employee who do the same jobs.

It’s for the simple reason that the Occupational Safety and Health Act doesn’t cover public employees. So except for those public employees who work in the 27 states that have OSHA state plans that cover public employees, government workers in this country have no right to a safe workplace, no right to come home alive and healthy at the end of the work day, and nor right to enjoy their retirement and play with their their grandchildren.

Yes, this is yet another of my regular rants about how this nation treats state, county and city workers as second class employees not deserving the same legal rights to a safe workplace that private sector workers have.

What triggered my latest outburst?

For those who studied the latest Weekly Toll, you may have noticed that four public employees were killed on the job last week — two in Colorado, one in Kansas and one in Nebraska — all states where public employees are not covered by a law that requires their employers to provide a safe workplace.

A City of Wellington, Kansas, electric distribution lineman Wilson Price was electrocuted after coming into contact with an energized piece of equipment. Two Colorado DOT workers, Trent Umberger, and Nathan Jones were killed by a driver when they fixing a sign in Mesa County, and  50-year-old Elkhorn, Nebraska school district school district employee Kevin Garrison was killed  while working working in a geothermal well installing turf at football field at the school.

Last month, Corpus Christi, Texas, employee, 33 year-old Ashia Lopez was found dead at the bottom of an air conditioning cooling tower at Corpus Christi City Hall.  In July, an un-named Del City, Oklahoma worker was killed when he was pinned under a mower, Wayne Cook, 42, was killed in Hitchcock County, Nebraska, when the sanitation truck he was driving was involved in a traffic incident and Louis Nagy died in a lawn mower incident in Bushkill Township, Pennsylvania.  Baltimore Department of Public Works employee Ron Silver II, age 36, died from heat stroke after hauling trash all day in 99-degree heat.Public employees in Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Nebraska are also not covered by OSHA.

And this list includes the numerous police officers and firefighters killed every week while doing their jobs.

Of course, OSHA coverage doesn’t necessarily mean public employees are always safe. Also in August, Caltrans worker Alexander Rodish, 53,  and MassDOT worker David Sousa, 57  were killed on the job.  In July, 19-year-old Trace Christman was killed at a water treatment plant in Rocky Mount, NC, 23-year-old Tristan Garrett Stone was electrocuted at a water treatment plant in Anderson County, South Carolina and Connecticut DOT worker Andrew DiDomenico, 26, was killed when a vehicle went off the road and hit him. Unlike public employee deaths in Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas and 18 other states, at least when public employees are killed or seriously injured in OSHA states there is an investigation and citations.

In states where public employees are not covered, there is rarely an independent investigation into the incident, and even those rare investigations are often covered up. Some states send thoughts and prayers by establishing memorials for public employees killed on the job. Memorials are a good thing. People should be aware that workers died fixing their roads and dealing with their sewage.

But unless these memorials are backed up by action to prevent those deaths, they’re nothing more than hollow gestures.

Why Are Public Employee Second Class Citizens?

So why are public employees legally allowed to get hurt and die in unsafe workplaces when they do the same — or more dangerous work as private sector employees?

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct0 was passed by Congress in 1970. It required employers to provide a safe workplace for their employees. Employers were required to comply with OSHA standards and face inspections if a worker complained, or someone was hurt or killed in the workplace.

But with a major exception: public employees were not covered by the OSHAct. They have no legal right to a safe workplace, even though many did the exact same work that private sector workers do. Even though state and local government employers have a higher injury and illness rate than private industry workers, including construction, mining and manufacturing workers.

Public employees were not covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. They have no legal right to a safe workplace, even though many did the exact same work that private sector workers do.

There were two exceptions to the public employee exemption.

First, states were allowed to run their own OSHA programs —  50% funded by federal OSHA — if their programs were “at least as effective” as federal OSHA’s. And those state plans are required to cover public employees in their state.

States were also allowed to adopt “public employee-only plans” where federal OSHA would provide 50% of the funding for those states to cover only their public employees. The feds then continue to cover the private sector in those states.

There are 21 states (and Puerto Rico) that run their own full state plans, and another 6 states (and the Virgin Islands) that have public employee-only plans, leaving 23 states where public employees have no OSHA coverage, no right to come home alive and healthy at the end of the work day. Workers in Washington DC also have no OSHA coverage.*

Why haven’t more states passed public employee OSHA laws? If you listen to organizations like the League of Cities, Conference of Mayors and National Association of Counties, who all oppose public employee coverage, it’s because public employers are already doing a wonderful job protecting their employees and they don’t need any more burdensome laws and standards standards to tell them to do what they’re already doing.

Also, they argue, OSHA coverage would cost too much for strapped government budgets. Not a good use of taxpayer dollars.

Of course, the never answer the how something they’re allegedly already doing cost too much?

Is Change Afoot?

All of this can change if the Occupational Safety and Health Act is modified. Last week, Congressmen Chris Deluzio (D-PA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced H.R. 8758, the bipartisan Public Service Worker Protection Act, which would bring all of the nation’s public employees under OSHA protection.  The bill contains similar language to the Protecting America’s Workers Act which is introduced every year in Congress.

“No matter where they live, American workers in every sector should have the strong safety standards and protections of OSHA in their workplace,” said Congressman Deluzio.

“Our dedicated public sector workers throughout our country deserve to be safe at work and the robust level of protection that OSHA coverage provides,” said Republican Congressman Fitzpatrick.

The bill was referred to the House Education and Workforce Committee which is unlikely to take any action while Republicans remain in control of the House of Representatives. So far the bill has only 27 co-sponsors and only 7 of those from states with no public employee OSHA coverage. Fitzpatrick remains the sole Republican.

What is to be done?

Providing coverage for public employees requires legislation — either on the state or federal level. But just introducing legislation isn’t enough. I first started working on a public employee law in Pennsylvania more than 40 years ago.  That law has still not passed both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature.

Passing public employee laws will take strong pressure on state legislatures and governors. Most people — even many public employees — don’t know that they’re not covered by OSHA.  News papers that report on public employee deaths rarely mention that the hazards that killed the worker are not covered by any OSHA standard in that state. Some even falsely report that OSHA is investigating.

I write to reporters almost every time a public employee is killed, urging them to follow up and inform their readers that public employees are not covered by OSHA in their state, that these workers who do the same work as private sector workers have no right to come home alive an healthy at the end of the work day.

Sometimes the reporters follow up. Usually they don’t respond.

Public employees in this country do the important work that keeps our society moving.  They do hard, unpleasant, dangerous work and they don’t get paid much. The least we can do for them is to make sure they aren’t killed or injured by preventable hazards when they go to work every day.

This is an election year — on the federal level and in many state legislatures as well. No better time than this to ask legislators if they’re aware that there are no safety standards for public employees. Ask them if they even know that or if they think that’s right. Ask them what they’re going to do about it — especially pro-labor candidates.

And public employee union members should make sure that their union leadership puts public employee coverage on top of the union’s agenda and urges state (and federal) legislators to push for laws that protect public employees’ lives.

Public employee unions like AFSCME, AFT, CWA and SEIU often lobby for public employee coverage, but the states that don’t cover public employees generally don’t have strong public employee unions. Pennsylvania is one notable exception. And OSHA coverage is often not top on the list of local union priorities.

Public employees in this country do the important work that keeps our society moving. Every time you drive on our roads, drink clean water, come home safe, take out your garbage and flush your toilet, you can thank a public employee. If you don’t get mugged and your house doesn’t burn down, you can thank a public employee.  If you enjoy your parks, if you’re thankful that prisoners are in prison and sick and mentally ill people are being taken care of, you can thank public employees.

They do hard, unpleasant, dangerous work and they don’t get paid much. The least we can do for them is to pass laws that make sure they aren’t killed or injured by preventable hazards when they go to work every day.

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*States where public employees can still be legally killed by workplace hazards that would be illegal if they were private sector employees are: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,  South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.