OSHA Spooks Business

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent an $87 million message to American businesses Friday: There’s a new sheriff in town when it comes to workplace safety.

OSHA announced its record proposed fines against BP, alleging the oil company had failed to correct safety problems at its Texas City, Texas, refinery. An explosion there in 2005 killed 15 workers.

That fine is four times larger than the largest penalty previously imposed by OSHA, $21 million, which was levied against BP in 2005.

After the explosion, BP “agreed to take comprehensive action to protect employees,” Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said. “Instead of living up to that commitment, BP has allowed hundreds of potential hazards to continue unabated.”

Solis, who grew up in a union family, said the $87 million fine won’t bring back the 15 people who lost their lives in the explosion, “but we can’t let this happen again.”

“Workplace safety is more than a slogan,” she said. “It’s the law. The U.S. Department of Labor will not tolerate the preventable exposure of workers to hazardous conditions.”

The proposed fine followed a six-month OSHA inspection, which found hundreds of violations of BP’s 2005 settlement agreement with the agency and hundreds of new violations, primarily dealing with failure to follow industry-accepted controls on pressure-relief safety systems, according to the agency.

BP Products North America is contesting all of the OSHA citations. The independent Occupational Health and Safety Review Commission will decide who is right.

“We are disappointed that OSHA took this action in advance of the full consideration of the review commission,” said Keith Casey, manager of the Texas City refinery. “We continue to believe we are in full compliance with the settlement agreement.”

Casey said BP’s efforts to improve worker safety at the refinery “have been among the most strenuous and comprehensive that the refining industry has ever seen.”

The huge fine against BP is another sign that OSHA is beefing up its enforcement efforts under President Obama. During the George W. Bush administration, the agency emphasized voluntary compliance with workplace safety standards.

Business groups are worried about Obama’s nominee to replace the agency, David Michaels, a public health professor at George Washington University. Earlier this month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce requested a hearing on Michaels’ nomination, claiming his “writings often revolve around the theme that corporations are typically bad actors.”

The Chamber’s request for a hearing was denied, but Michaels doesn’t appear to be headed for confirmation anytime soon.

Even without Michaels on board, however, OSHA is singing a different tune. Take the consistent decline in workplace injury rates in recent years. During the Bush administration, OSHA pointed to these statistics as evidence that its approach was working. On Thursday, however, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the number of nonfatal workplace injuries declined by 300,000 in 2008, Solis implied that employers may be underreporting injuries.

“Today’s report prompts us to step up our vigilance on accurate recordkeeping, particularly as the economy regains momentum,” she said.

Employers, be warned: Clean up your act or OSHA will get you.

Happy Halloween.