ILTA Health and Safety Subcommittee Receives Update on OSHA, Discusses New Approaches to Safety Awards Program

The ILTA Health and Safety Subcommittee, chaired by IMTT’s Byrne Evans, met on March 30 in New Orleans. Committee members received briefings from Eric Conn of Conn Maciel Carey LLP —a boutique law firm focused on Labor & Employment, Workplace Safety, and Litigation.

The briefing detailed the latest in OSHA’s regulatory activity relating to heat exposure at the workplace. On Oct. 27, 2021, OSHA published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings in the Federal Register. With this publication, OSHA is beginning the rulemaking process to consider a heat-specific workplace standard. A standard specific to heat-related injury and illness prevention would more clearly set forth employer obligations and the measures necessary to protect employees more effectively from hazardous heat. The ultimate goal is to prevent and reduce the number of occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities caused by exposure to hazardous heat.

Conn explained that in the rulemaking, OSHA has embarked on one of the broadest, most significant rulemakings it has undertaken in over a decade. The agency is developing a comprehensive occupational standard to regulate heat illness associated with exposure to heat on the job — in indoor as well as outdoor settings. A heat standard will impact scores of employers in every region of the country and may include requirements to provide conditioned air or increased building ventilation, shade tents, regular work-rest cycles built into employees’ work schedules and biological monitoring to ensure employees are not dehydrated or showing signs of heat stress.

The standard has become a priority of the Biden Administration as part of their interagency effort to address climate change and the impact it is having on U.S. worker populations. A number of recent studies show that workers are often the first to be exposed to the effects of climate change and may be affected for longer durations and at greater intensities.

The subcommittee also discussed ways to improve ILTA’s Safety Excellence and Platinum Safety Awards program. Members discussed the limitations of TRIR as the sole basis of the Safety Excellence Award, and also debated the value of requiring a threshold TRIR in order for a company to be eligible to apply to the Platinum Safety Award program. The subcommittee directed the formation of a working group to consider the development of a composite score, which would include TRIR along with other factors, as an improved metric for the safety program and for companies’ ability to benchmark their performance. The working group will make recommendations to the Health and Safety Subcommittee for its consideration. Shannon Caldwell of Zenith Energy has volunteered to lead the working group.

Because of timing, the metrics used for the 2022 Safety Awards Program — now underway — will not be affected by this effort.

For more information about the work of the subcommittee, please contact wither our Subcommittee Chair Byrne Evans byrneevans@imtt.com or ILTA Vice President of Government Affairs Michael Stroud at mstroud@ilta.org.