Source: http://openjurist.org/599/f2d/622/osh-oshd-taylor-diving-salvage-co-inc-v-u-s-department-of-labor-f
Timestamp: 2014-11-28 22:07:28
Document Index: 45091483

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 651', '§ 1910', '§ 1910', '§ 1910', '§ 1910', '§ 1910', '§ 1910', '§ 1910', '§ 655', '§ 652', '§ 655']

599 F2d 622 Osh Oshd Taylor Diving Salvage Co Inc v. U S Department of Labor F | OpenJurist
599 F. 2d 622 - Osh Oshd Taylor Diving Salvage Co Inc v. U S Department of Labor F	Home599 f2d 622 osh oshd taylor diving salvage co inc v. u s department of labor f
599 F2d 622 Osh Oshd Taylor Diving Salvage Co Inc v. U S Department of Labor F 599 F.2d 622
7 O.S.H. Cas.(BNA) 1507, 1979 O.S.H.D. (CCH) P 23,698TAYLOR DIVING & SALVAGE CO., INC., et al., Petitioners,v.U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, F. Ray Marshall, Secretary ofLabor, and Eula Bingham, Assistant Secretary ofLabor for Occupational Safety andHealth, Respondents.
No. 77-2875.
Stanley R. Strauss, Michael J. Bartlett, Dixie L. Atwater, Washington, D. C., Michael J. Molony, Jr., New Orleans, La., for petitioner.
W. Scott Railton, Washington, D. C., for Chamber of Commerce, amici curiae.
W. William Ament, Reston, Va., for Occupational Safety & Health Group, Organization Resources Counselors, Inc., amici curiae.
Nathaniel I. Spiller, Edward A. Klein, Atty., Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., for respondents.
In this case we examine the validity of three provisions of the commercial diving health standard1 promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Department of Labor (OSHA), pursuant to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 651-678 (1975) (the Act). The petitioning companies, all members of the petitioning Association of Diving Contractors (ADC) who are engaged in commercial diving operations in waters in and adjacent to the United States, attack the medical examination procedure and cost allocation required by § 1910.411 of the diving standard and the employee-access-to-records provision in § 1910.440(b)(2) of the regulation. Sections 1910.411 and 1910.440(b)(2) are set out in full in an appendix to this opinion. Section 1910.411 places upon employers the obligation to determine that divers who are, or are likely to be, exposed to hyperbaric conditions are medically fit to perform assigned tasks in a safe and healthful manner. Employers are required to provide each such employee with a comprehensive medical examination prior to initial hyperbaric exposure with the employer, unless an equivalent evaluation has been made within the preceding year, and yearly thereafter. The mandatory medical examination is the first step of what may, at the employee's option, develop into a three-tiered medical assessment procedure, all levels of which must be financed by the employer. If the examining physician selected by the employer determines that the examinee is medically unfit to engage in diving activities, the examinee has the option of seeking the opinion of a second physician. If the opinion of the second physician differs from that of the initial examining physician, then a third opinion must be secured from a physician selected by the first two physicians. In such circumstances, the opinion of the third physician dictates the employer's final determination of the diver's medical fitness. That is, if the third physician finds the applicant medically fit for exposure to hyperbaric conditions, the employer must accept the applicant as medically qualified and would be barred by OSHA from declining to employ him on such grounds. Because OSHA is without authority to so restrict the medical fitness determinations of employers, the petitions for review are granted with respect to § 1910.411.
Section 1910.440(b)(2) is challenged only with regard to the manner of its promulgation, in that the Secretary of Labor is claimed to have failed to meet the notice requirements of the Act prior to enacting that provision of the standard. The petitioners' challenge is without merit, however, and the petitions for review are denied with respect to § 1910.440(b)(2).
The petitioners first claim that the Secretary of Labor exceeded his statutory authority in promulgating § 1910.411, the medical requirements provisions of the standard. Basically, the petitioners object to § 1910.411 because it gives an employee the right to appeal an initial determination of medical unfitness for diving to a second, and possibly third, doctor until the first examining doctor's evaluation is either concurred in by the second doctor or overruled by the third. Also, the employer is required to pay for all medical examinations accorded under § 1910.411.
The Secretary of Labor's authority to promulgate occupational safety and health standards2 derives from § 655 of the Act, 29 U.S.C.A. The Act defines an "occupational safety and health standard" as "a standard which requires conditions, or the adoption or use of one or more practices, means, methods, operations, or processes, reasonably necessary or appropriate to provide safe or healthful employment and places of employment." 29 U.S.C.A. § 652(8). Judicial review of occupational safety and health standards is authorized by 29 U.S.C.A. § 655(f), and "(t)he determinations of the Secretary shall be conclusive is supported by substantial evidence in the record considered as a whole." Another basic premise in our review of OSHA regulations is that the Secretary can only effectuate the will of Congress as expressed in the Act.
The power of an administrative officer or board to administer a federal statute and to prescribe rules and regulations to that end is not the power to make law for no such power can be delegated by Congress but the power to adopt regulations to carry into effect the will of Congress as expressed by the statute. A regulation which does not do this, but operates to create a rule out of harmony w