Veep eyes OSHA self-compliance plan - Vice President Al Gore's plan to reduce costs of Occupational Safety and Health Act

Discount Store News, Oct 4, 1993 by Ken Rankin

Vice Prisent Al Gore--the leader of the Clinton administration's new drive to "reinvent" the government--has come up with an innovative new plan to reduce the cost of federal Occupational Safety and Health Act inspections.

Under his proposal, discounters and other employers would be required to inspect themselves and report work place safety violations back to Washington.

According to the newly released report of Gore's National Performance Review (NPR), this kind of "privatization" of federal job safety enforcement could be accomplished without seeking legislation from Congress.

Indeed, the NPR explained, "the labor secretary already is authorized to require employers to conduct certified self-inspections."

Under the vice president's proposal, discount chains and other employers would be offered two options:

* "They could hire third parties, such as private inspection companies" to inspect facilities according to specifications set by the department or,

* They could "authorize nonmanagement employees, after training and certification, to conduct inspections" of their own work places.

In essence, Gore is falling back to the staple of the Clinton administration's regulatory philosophy: create a new federal mandate requiring private businesses to bear the cost of governmental activities.

Before you dismiss the OSHA inspection proposal out-of-hand, however, you should first listen to some of the arguments that the vice president has been unsing to help gather support for this approach.

Although there are an estimated 2,400 federal and state work place safety inspectors on the job today, "the present system doesn't work well enough," he contends.

Even with this many government job safety enforcers OSHA doesn't have enough personnel to follow up on more than 3% of its inspections, according to the NPR report. Even the most hazardous work place can expect to be visited no more than once every several years.

According to Gore, the government should adopt a more effective role, "setting standards and imposing penalties on work places that don't comply."

The model for Gore's self-inspection plan is the current set of rules that the government uses to ensure honest financial reporting by business.

"No army of federal auditors descends upon American business to audit their books" because "the government forces them to have the job done themselves," Gore reasons.

Similarly, he says, "no army of OSHA inspectors need descend upon corporate America. The health and safety of American workers could be vastly improved without bankrupting the federal treasury."

Gore is offering employers a carrot as well as a stick. Employers with good OSHA compliance records would be allowed to report less frequently, undergo fewer audits and submit less paperwork.