“A bill to authorize the Department of Labor's voluntary protection program.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes the Michael Enzi Voluntary Protection Program under the Secretary of Labor to recognize employers voluntarily implementing comprehensive safety and health management systems, including systematic hazard assessments, prevention and control programs, management and employee participation, and training. (As background: The program codifies and expands OSHA's existing Voluntary Protection Programs, which exempt qualifying worksites from programmed inspections in exchange for demonstrated safety excellence.) The program requires employer applications; annual self-evaluations; onsite evaluations without citations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (with serious hazards corrected within 90 days or as practicable); information sharing with employees; periodic reevaluations; and oversight by designated OSHA personnel using special government employees. It exempts participating worksites from programmed inspections, prohibits required payments, directs monitoring of performance including documentation of regional responses to fatalities and injuries, and requires a written plan within two years to modernize program administration technology (e.g., applications, self-evaluations, audits). This section further establishes a no-cost, tiered Challenge program as a safety management evaluation tool for program participants and directs an orderly transition from OSHA's preexisting voluntary protection program.