I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1459

To authorize the Secretary of Labor to establish voluntary protection

programs.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 15, 1999

Mr. PETRI (for himself and Mr. ANDREWS) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce

A BILL

To authorize the Secretary of Labor to establish voluntary

protection programs.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Models of Safety and

5 Health Excellence Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—

8 (1) since 1982 the Occupational Safety and

9 Health Administration has conducted voluntary pro-
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1 tection programs designed to recognize excellence in

2 occupational safety and health;

3 (2) Such programs have fostered partnerships

4 between employers, employees and the Occupational

5 Safety and Health Administration to improve work6 place safety and health through the implementation

7 of effective safety and health programs;

8 (3) employers participating in such programs

9 provide their employees with a level of protection

10 that substantially exceeds the level of protection pro11 vided by compliance with the requirements of the

12 Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970; and

13 (4) as a result of these efforts, employers par14 ticipating in such programs have experienced injury

15 and illness rates that are on average less than half

16 of their respective industry averages, sparing thou17 sands of America’s working families needless work18 place tragedies.

19 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to—

20 (1) recognize the exemplary leadership of vol21 untary protection programs participants in improv22 ing occupational safety and health at workplaces;

23 (2) encourage other employers to adopt such

24 approaches to protect their workers; and
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1 (3) to codify such programs to ensure that the

2 Occupational Safety and Health Administration con3 tinues to develop them in the future.

4 SEC. 3. VOLUNTARY PROTECTION PROGRAMS.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Labor or the

6 Secretary’s authorized representative shall establish and

7 carry out voluntary protection programs (in this section

8 referred to as ‘‘programs’’) to promote and recognize the

9 achievement of worksites that demonstrate excellence in

10 workplace health and safety. The Secretary may choose,

11 in limited situations, to alter the application requirements

12 in order to expand the scope of worksites participating in

13 the programs to include nonstandard worksites such as

14 short term construction sites and mobile worksites. The

15 Secretary shall encourage the participants in the programs

16 to share occupational safety and health expertise with

17 other employers. The Secretary shall also encourage the

18 participation of small business (as that term is defined

19 by the Administrator of the Small Business Administra20 tion) in the programs by implementing outreach and as21 sistance initiatives in cooperation with program partici22 pants and shall develop program requirements that ad23 dress the needs of small businesses. The Secretary may

24 provide for the development of equivalent programs in

25 State plan States.
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1 (b) PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS.—A program shall in2 clude the following:

3 (1) APPLICATION.—Applications for participa4 tion in the programs must be signed by the work5 site’s management and to demonstrate sufficient em6 ployee support. Employers who volunteer under the

7 programs shall be required to submit an application

8 to the Secretary of Labor demonstrating that the

9 worksite, with respect to which the application is

10 made, meets such requirements as the Secretary

11 may require for participation in the program. Re12 quirements for excellence shall include demonstra13 tions of exemplary comprehensive programs to

14 assure—

15 (A) top level management leadership and

16 active and meaningful employee involvement;

17 (B) systematic assessment of hazards;

18 (C) comprehensive hazard prevention, miti19 gation, and control programs;

20 (D) employee safety and health training;

21 and

22 (E) safety and health program evaluation.

23 (2) ONSITE EVALUATIONS.—There shall be on24 site evaluations of each permanent worksite by rep25 resentatives of the Secretary and others from the
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1 private and public sector as determined by the Sec2 retary.

3 (3) INFORMATION.—Employers who are ap4 proved by the Secretary for participation in a pro5 gram shall assure the Secretary that such informa6 tion as is necessary to evaluate the employer’s appli7 cation and continued participation in the program is

8 made available to the Secretary.

9 (4) REEVALUATIONS.—Periodic reevaluations

10 by the Secretary shall be required for continued par11 ticipation in a program.

12 (c) PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION.—

13 (1) EXEMPTIONS.—A worksite which has been

14 selected to participate in a program shall, while par15 ticipating in the program, be exempt from inspec16 tions or investigations under the Occupational Safe17 ty and Health Act of 1970, except that the exemp18 tion shall not apply to inspections or investigations

19 arising from employee complaints, fatalities, catas20 trophes, or significant toxic releases.

21 (2) PROGRAM ACCEPTANCE AND CONTINUED

22 PARTICIPATION.—Decisions regarding acceptance

23 into the program and continued participation in the

24 program will be based on the applicant’s superior

25 safety and health performance, as determined by the
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1 Secretary or the Secretary’s authorized representa2 tives.

3 (3) PROGRAM PARTICIPATION.—Decisions re4 garding participation in a program are in the sole

5 discretion of the Secretary or an authorized rep6 resentative of the Secretary.

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