Posted January 29, 2014
U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer (R-ND) recently
responded to reports of excessive fines on small farming operations by urging
U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to stop the action by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), according to a press release from Rep.
Cramer’s office available here.
“Farmers and landowners have a strong vested and
personal interest in keeping their operations safe and viable, and they are
already subject to countless regulations to ensure operational integrity. If the Administration believes OSHA should be
given authority to regulate small farming operations, evidence would need to be
presented to Congress and passed through the normal legislative process,” said
Cramer and others in Congress in a letter to Secretary Perez.
Senators Mike Johanns (R-NE) and Jerry Moran (R-KS)
also called on Secretary Perez to rescind an OSHA guidance clarifying the
agency’s authority to enforce regulations on farms with less than 10 workers,
according to an article by The Hill available here.
Congress, for decades, has inserted language in
appropriations bills which prohibits OSHA from enforcing provisions of the 1976
Occupational Safety and Health Act on farming operations with 10 or fewer
employees.
Recently, however, OSHA has begun issuing fines based
on a guidance
issued in 2011, “which was meant to clarify the agency’s authority at small
farms with grain storage structures.”
Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary for OSHA,
“lamented what he described as confusion over the agency’s approach to grain
bins and promised to work with the USDA to clarify operations that are exempt
from OSHA regulation,” according to the Omaha World-Herald Bureau in an article
available here.
Barab also defended the agency, saying “it has always
taken seriously the longstanding prohibition against regulating small farms,
including their grain bins.” Barab said
the agency became more aggressive about grain bin inspection in 2011 after a
high number of cases in which people became engulfed and “drowned” in the grain
were reported. In 2010, there were 57
engulfments, 31 of them fatal.
For more information on agricultural labor, please
visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
