Court Opinion

ID: 9464195
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:27:22.992551+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:30.504058
License: Public Domain

WISDOM, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The Court today finds that the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. §§ 651 et seq., requires a worker to choose between his job and risk of death. An interpretative regulation of the Secretary of Labor, 29 C.F.R. 1977.12(b), eliminates this hard choice. In my opinion, the regulation invalidated by the Court is reasonably related to the purposes of the Act. Because I cannot read the legislative history to forbid implicitly this regulation, I must respectfully dissent.
I.
The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. “In appraising the sufficiency of the complaint, we follow, of course, the accepted rule that a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.” Conley v. Gibson, 1957, 355 U.S. 41, 45, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80. “This rule, which has been stated hundreds of times, precludes final dismissal for insufficiency of the complaint except in the extraordinary case where the pleader makes allegations that show on the face of the complaint some insuperable bar to relief.” Wright, Federal Courts, ch. 10, § 68, p. 322 (1976). This case presents in pure form, therefore, a challenge to the Secretary of Labor’s interpretative regulation, 29 C.F.R. 1977.12(b), on which the plaintiff relies.1
*717For purpose of the motion to dismiss, we assume that the plaintiff would be able to prove the following set of facts which are within the ambit of the facts alleged in the complaint. Daniel Construction Company-employed Jimmy Simpson as an ironworker connecting structural steel in the construction of tall buildings. The job required fitting into place heavy steel beams with the aid of a crane. One windy day Simpson was working 150 feet above the ground. The wind grew so strong that it imperiled his life. He came down from high on the steel skeleton where he had been working. So did the rest of his crew. A foreman ordered the crew to return to work. Simpson refused. He was fired.
The importance of the majority’s holding extends far beyond this case. The effect of the holding is to force an anti-social dilemma on workers who face imminent danger of a hazard then and there occurring and have no immediate relief available but to refuse to continue working in an unsafe place. The procedures which the statute expressly provided to correct unsafe conditions cannot come to the worker’s rescue in time when he is exposed to immediate danger to life or limb.
The regulation in question provides:
“(2) However, occasions might arise when an employee is confronted with a choice between not performing assigned tasks or subjecting himself to serious injury or death arising from a hazardous condition at the workplace. If the employee, with no reasonable alternative, refuses in good faith to expose himself to the dangerous condition, he would be protected against subsequent discrimination. The condition causing the employee’s apprehension of death or injury must be of such a nature that a reasonable person, under the circumstances then confronting the employee, would conclude that there is a real danger of death or serious injury and that there is insufficient time, due to the urgency of the situation, to eliminate the danger through resort to regular statutory enforcement channels. In addition, in such circumstances, the employee, where possible, must also have sought from his employer, and been unable to obtain, a correction of the dangerous condition.”2
The majority recognizes a properly deferential standard for our review of the Secretary’s interpretation of the Act. However, it does not seem to apply the spirit of the Supreme Court’s injunction that to sustain such an interpretation, “we need not find that [his] construction is the only reasonable one, or even that it is the result we would have reached had the question arisen in the first instance in judicial proceedings”. Udall v. Tallman, 1965, 380 U.S. 1, 16, 85 S.Ct. 792, 801, 13 L.Ed.2d 616, 625, quoting Unemployment Comm’n v. Aragan, 1946, 329 U.S. 143,153, 67 S.Ct. 245, 250, 91 L.Ed. 136, 145. See Brennan v. Southern Contractors Service, 5 Cir. 1974, 492 F.2d 498, 501.
II.
This regulation is reasonably related to the purposes of the Act. The Act begins with this statement of purpose.
“The Congress declares it to be its purpose and policy ... to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources.”3
Section 11(c)(1) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 660(c)(1), provides the specific foundation for these regulations.
“No person shall discharge or in any manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this Act or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding or because *718of the exercise by such employee on behalf of himself or others of any right afforded by this Act.”
Following his mandate to protect the American worker, the Secretary has filled a dangerous gap in the Act. As the majority points out, the Act allows a worker to make a written request for immediate federal inspection whenever the worker believes himself to be in imminent danger. The Secretary must determine whether such an inspection is warranted. If he finds it is not, he must notify the complaining parties in writing. If he finds that it is, he must order an investigation as soon as practicable. The inspector then must determine whether imminent danger exists. If he finds that it does, he is required to inform the Secretary, who may bring an action in federal district court for an injunction. The employee may use a writ of mandamus, or its equivalent,4 to force the Secretary to act properly. While these events take place, the worker, presumably in imminent danger, has no relief according to the majority. In this case Jimmy Simpson would be required to stay on the high skeleton, handling heavy steel and attempting to balance himself, no matter how strong the winds became, or lose his job — until the district court issued an injunction. A literal reading of the statute in this situation may make its remedies tragically late.
Regulation 1977.12(b) was promulgated to fill this gap. If the employee reasonably believes that he is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm and believes the procedures outlined above inadequate to prevent that danger, he may withdraw from work without penalty. This gives the employee an essential interim protection while the statutory remedies are being followed. This protection is limited. The government cannot order the employer to make any changes, and, apparently, the worker is neither entitled to receive pay while not working, nor privileged to refuse alternative, safe work. He merely wins freedom from exposure to danger.
There are two different ways to justify this interpretation of section 11(c)(1). First, the regulation can be interpreted as embodying one of the “other rights” mentioned in 11(c)(1), a right to safe conditions implicit in the entire law.
Second, the regulation can be seen as an essential part of the employee enforcement envisioned by Congress and protected by that section.5 It both increases the incentive for the worker to use the Act’s protective mechanism and it ensures that the reporting worker will be available during the inspection and any later proceedings. Similar provisions are contained in other labor legislation, including the National Labor Relations Act,6 the Coal Mine Safety and Health Act,7 and Title VII of the Civil *719Rights Act of 1964. Courts have given these provisions broad constructions, furthering the purposes of the Acts by making employee enforcement easier. In Scrivener v. NLRB, 1972, 405 U.S. 117, 92 S.Ct. 798, 31 L.Ed.2d 79, the Supreme Court upheld a construction of the NLRA provision that workers who made written statements to the board’s examiners were protected by a statute that spoke only of “testimony”. In Phillips v. Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals, 1974, 163 U.S.App.D.C. 104, 500 F.2d 772, the Court, in the context of that particular working arrangement, read similar language to protect a miner who refused to work for safety reasons. The Court considered the refusal to work a complaint which, under the procedures at that mine, started in motion the administrative process. 163 U.S.App.D.C. at 110-113, 500 F.2d at 778-81. In EEOC v. Kallir, Philips, Ross, Inc., 1975, S.D.N.Y., 401 F.Supp. 66, an employee had been fired for seeking information about her complaint from some of her employer’s customers. The court held that she was protected in that endeav- or by the Act. The majority properly points out that these precedents are not controlling. They do, however, furnish examples of broad judicial construction of provisions similar to the Secretary’s regulation.8
9
III.
The Court does not dispute the rationality of the regulation. Instead, it rests its conclusion on its reading of the legislative history. The exclusion of two provisions by Congress — the so-called “strike with pay” provision, and the original imminent danger provision — convinces the majority that Congress did not intend that workers have the right embodied in regulation 1977.12(b). No clause in the Act leads to the conclusion that the statutory system is the exclusive remedy: Instead, the Court implies not merely a congressional unwillingness to directly grant these rights, but a congressional prohibition on this use of the Secretary of Labor’s power. My reading of the legislative history convinces me that the majority is wrong.
The strike with pay provision was present in the Daniels Bill, reported by the House Committee on Education and Labor and supported strongly by organized labor. The provision was located in the section dealing with federal research on toxicity. It provided that employers or employees could request an HEW determination of the toxicity of any materials in their workplace. Within sixty days of that determination, the employer could not require that an employee be exposed to greater than toxic concentration unless the employee were informed of the hazards, the symptoms associated with the substance, and proper precautions for dealing with it. Furthermore, the employer had to furnish the employee with proper personal protective equipment. If those conditions were not met, an employee could be subjected to the toxic substance only if he could “absent himself from such risk of harm for the period necessary to avoid such danger without loss of regular compensation for such period”.10
The rejection of that proposal has little bearing on this regulation. It was written to deal with problems of increasing concentrations of toxic substances, not immediate hazards. It spoke only of toxicity dangers, it did not require an imminent threat to life, and it was a remedy to be invoked only after 60 days without employer action. Unlike that provision, the regulation in ques*720tion does not provide for an absence with pay.
The bills reported out of both House and Senate Committees originally contained provisions for administratively ordered shutdowns in cases of imminent danger. The bill as passed by the Senate provided:
“If the Secretary determines that the imminence of a danger is such that immediate action is necessary, and the Secretary determines that there is not sufficient time, in light of the nature and imminence of the danger, to seek and obtain a temporary restraining order the Secretary shall issue an order requiring such steps to be taken as may be necessary to avoid, correct, or remove such imminent danger and prohibiting the employment or presence of any individual in locations or under conditions where such imminent danger exists . Such order may remain in effect for not more than seventy-two hours from the time of its issuance. If the Secretary delegates his authority to issue such an order to close a business or plant, in whole or in substantial part, he shall provide that such an order may not be issued until the employer has been notified in writing, signed by the delegate of the-Secretary, setting forth specially the nature and imminence of the danger compelling immediate action and the concurrence of an official of the Labor Department appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate is first obtained.” [Emphasis added.]11
This provision differed significantly from the regulation promulgated by the Secretary of Labor. First, it empowered an official to order the entire operation closed. Second, in some versions it allowed the official to order remedies on the spot. Third, and most importantly, it relied upon action by the government. In contrast, the regulation provides only that those workers endangered may refuse to work. It does not allow them to order the employer to make changes. And it relies on purely private actions, not those of the federal government.
A study of the legislative history shows that the last difference is crucial. Opponents of the administrative shut-down order in both houses raised two major objections.
*721It was feared that this provision was unconstitutional.12 Opponents contended that giving a lone government inspector the power to close down an entire facility, without any judicial action, would deprive the employers of due process of law. This argument applies only to actions taken by the government. Private employees may refuse to work without violating due process.
The other reason advanced in opposition to this provision was that it would break the federal government’s neutral role in labor-management relations.13 Congressmen repeatedly voiced fears that inspectors would become federal pawns in battles between labor and management. But this provision could have prompted these fears only because it involved the power of the federal government. That workers might walk off the job could not have caused these fears by itself, because they already possessed a very similar right. Section 502 of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C. § 143, provides:
“[T]he quitting of labor by an employee or employees in good faith because of abnormally dangerous conditions for work at the place of employment of such employee or employees [shall not] be deemed a strike under this chapter.”
Safety strikes may be concerted activity, protected by § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157. In such a case, the striking workers cannot be discharged. See N.L.R.B. v. Washington Aluminum Co., 1962, 370 U.S. 9, 82 S.Ct. 1099, 8 L.Ed.2d 298. Section 502 is significant because it carves an exception in no-strike clauses. Thus, despite the generally present express or implied no-strike clauses in collective bargaining agreements, a covered worker may still strike over safety matters. See N.L.R.B. v. Knight Morley Corp., 6 Cir. 1957, 251 F.2d 753, cert. denied, 357 U.S. 927, 78 S.Ct. 1372, 2 L.Ed.2d 1370; cf. Gateway Coal Co. v. U.M.W., 1974, 414 U.S. 368, 94 S.Ct. 629, 38 L.Ed.2d 583 (adopting objective test of “abnormally dangerous conditions”); Banyard v. N.L.R.B., 1974, 164 U.S.App.D.C. 235, 241, 505 F.2d 342, 348 (applying Gateway).14 Thus, the idea that workers could refuse to work *722in hazardous conditions was not unusual. Indeed, Section 502 was mentioned in the debate on this Act in the House of Representatives.15 What was unusual was placing the power to close down an entire plant, with all its employees, in the hands of a lowly and perhaps vulnerable federal inspector. The potential for misuse of federal power disturbed Congress. Regulation 1977.12(b) poses no such threat. It is a right granted the employees, similar to but not exactly coextensive with the right granted by Section 502.16 By limiting the inspectors’ powers, Congress did not require us to reject this lifesaving regulation.
IV.
The Congress that passed this Act did not intend to put the worker to the choice — his job or his life. As one of the co-sponsors of the legislation said:
“We are talking about people’s lives, not the indifference of some cost accountants. We are talking about assuring the men and women who work in our plants and factories that they will go home after a day’s work with their bodies intact. We are talking about assuring our American workers who work with deadly chemicals that when they have accumulated a few years seniority they will not have accumulated lung congestion and poisons in their bodies, or something that will strike them down before they reach retirement age.”17
We are talking about whether Jimmy Simpson had to lose his job to avoid return to a dangerous work-place high on a windswept skeleton of steel. Congress felt that workers could live with the prescribed processes of this Act. I cannot believe that it required, workers to die for them. I respectfully dissent.

. Three district courts, other than the court below, have passed on the validity of this regulation. Usery v. Babcock & Wilcox, E.D.Mich. 1976, 424 F.Supp. 753 (regulation upheld); Usery v, Whirlpool Corporation, N.D.Ohio, 1976, 416 F.Supp. 30, appeals docketed, Nos. 76-2143, 76-2144, 6 Cir., Sept. 7, 1976 (regulation held invalid); Brennan v. Diamond Int’l *717Corp., Heekin Can Div., S.D.Ohio, June 8, 1976, C.A.No. C-1-75-43, appeal dismissed, No. 76-2139, 6 Cir., April 1977 (regulation held invalid).

. 29 C.F.R. § 1977.12(b) (1976). This regulation was adopted as an interpretation of the Act. See 29 C.F.R. § 1977.2 (1976).

. 29 U.S.C. § 651(b) (1970).

. The Act provides specifically for a writ of mandamus, 29 U.S.C. § 662(d) (1970). The writ of mandamus, however, has been abolished in federal practice. F.R.Civ.P. 81(b). See Oldham, O.S.H.A. May Not Work in ‘Imminent Danger’ Cases, 60 A.B.A.J. 690 (1974).

. Congress, aware of the shortage of federal and state occupational safety inspectors, placed great reliance on employee assistance in the enforcement of the Act. See S.Rep.No. 1282, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 11-12, reprinted in Subcommittee on Labor of Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 92d Cong., 1st Sess., Legislative History of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, at 151-52 (Comm. Print 1971) [cited below as Legislative History], and reprinted in [1970] U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News pp. 5177, 5188-89 [cited below as 1970 U.S.Admin.News]; H.Rep. No. 1291, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 22, reprinted in Legislative History at 852; 116 Cong.Rec. 38386 (remarks of Rep. Dent), reprinted in Legislative History at 1034. See also Cohen, The Occupational Safety and Health Act: A Labor Lawyer’s Overview, 33 Ohio St. L.J. 788, 799-802. Cf. Phillips v. Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals, 1974, 163 U.S.App.D.C. 104, 110-114, 500 F.2d 772, 778-82 (Congressional intent in Coal Mine Safety and Health Act).

. “It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer ... to discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee because he has filed charges or otherwise given testimony under this Act.” § 8(a)(4), National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(4) (1970).

. “No person shall discharge or in any . way discriminate . . . against any miner [because he] . notified the [agency] of any alleged violation or danger, . . . filed, instituted or . . . testified *719. . . in any proceeding . . . 30 U.S.C. § 820(b)(1) (1970).

. “It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against any of his employees . . . because he has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by this title, or because he has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this Title.” § 704(a), Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a) (1970).

. None of the three Acts considered above contains language similar to the “any other right afforded by this Act” phrase in § 11(c)(1).

. H.R. 16785, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., § 19(a)(5) (1970) reprinted in Legislative History 755-56.

. S. 2193, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., § 12(b) (as passed by the Senate), reprinted in Legislative History at 562-63.
The Williams Act as originally proposed, S. 2193, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., § 6(a)(2) (1969), reprinted in Legislative History at 1, 12-13, allowed the Secretary to make such an order in imminent danger situations. The order would have prohibited all employment at the site except for the purpose of eliminating the hazard, and would have remained in effect indefinitely pending the outcome of administrative proceedings. As S. 2193 emerged from the Committee, it limited the duration of the order to 72 hours and required that a regional director of the Labor Department concur in the inspector’s order. S. 2193, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., § 11(b) (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 263-64. The Senate adopted amendments to that section which required that the Labor Department official authorizing the inspector’s actions be one appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate, and requiring that the employer be notified of the reasons for the shutdown. 116 Cong.Rec. 37624-25 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 508-09; 116 Cong.Rec. 37621-22 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 499-500. The Senate considered and narrowly rejected an amendment which would have eliminated the administrative power to order operations stopped. 116 Cong.Rec. 37601-05 (1970) (roll call vote, and debate) reprinted in Legislative History at 451-61.
In the House of Representatives, the Daniels Bill, H.R. 16785, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., § 12(a), authorized the Secretary to issue a shut-down order of 5 day duration. Reprinted in Legislative History at 742. That provision was reported out of Committee in the same form. H.Rep. 1291, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 41 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 871. The Steiger-Sikes substitute bill, H.R. 19200, eliminated the administrative closure order entirely, in favor of district court injunctions. H.R. 19200, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., § 12 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 763, 796-98. Representative Daniels offered to amend his bill to conform to the substitute in this respect, 116 Cong.Rec. 38372, 38378 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History 993, 1009-10. However, the Steiger-Sikes bill was adopted as a substitute to the Daniels bill by amendment, and then adopted. 116 Cong.Rec. 38723-33 (1970) (roll call votes on the amendment, adoption of bill), reprinted in Legislative History 1112-18.

. See H.R. 1291, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 56 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 831, 886 (minority report); 116 Cong.Rec. 37338 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 425 (Sen. Dominick); 116 Cong.Rec. 37602 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 453 (Sen. Schweiker); 116 Cong.Rec. 37604 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 458 (Sen. Schweiker); 116 Cong.Rec. 38372 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 992 (Rep. Steiger); 116 Cong.Rec. 38379 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 1011-12 (Rep. Randall); 116 Cong.Rec. 38393 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 1050 (Rep. Michel); 116 Cong.Rec. 38713 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 1087 (Rep. Robison); 116 Cong. Rec. 42202 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 1205 (Rep. Quie). Cf. Note, Due Process and Employee Safety: Conflict in OSHA Enforcement Procedures, 84 Yale L.J. 1380 (1975) (general discussion of due process problems in the Act).

. See H.R. 1291, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 55-57 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 831, 885-87 (minority report); 116 Cong.Rec. 37346 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 448 (“breakdown of existing Government neutrality in labor-management relations”, Sen. Tower); 116 Cong.Rec. 38393 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 1050 (Rep. Michel).

. In Gateway Coal, the Court held that a particular safety dispute was encompassed in the implied no-strike clause of a collective bargaining agreement. However, the Court did not deny that § 502 would override such a no-strike clause. Instead, it held that for that section to be effective, the union would have to “present ‘ascertainable, objective evidence supporting its conclusion that an abnormally dangerous condition for work exists.’ ” 414 U.S. 368, 386-87, 94 S.Ct. 629, 640-41, 38 L.Ed.2d 583, 596-97 (quoting the dissent in the Court of Appeals). In so doing it rejected the subjective interpretation given that phrase by the Third Circuit below. 3 Cir. 1972, 466 F.2d 1157, 1160. While the result in Gateway Coal has been criticized as restricting employee rights more than the Act intends, see Atleson, Threats to Health and Safety: Employee Self-Help Under the NLRA, 59 Minn.L.Rev. 647 (1975). Courts have continued to find some strikes immune from no-strike clauses because of § 502. See, e. g., Banyard v. N.L.R.B., 1974, 164 U.S.App.D.C. 235, 505 F.2d 342, Plain Dealer Publishing Co. v. Cleveland Typo. Union # 53, 6 Cir. 1975, 520 F.2d 1220, 1229 (district court opinion attached as appendix); United States Steel Corp. v. U.M.W., W.D.Pa.1974, 381 F.Supp. 990, 990-91.

. 116 Cong.Rec. 42208 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 1223-24 (Rep. Scherle).

. § 502 only provides that no-strike clauses do not affect safety strikes, protected by § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157 (1970). Thus, to be protected a strike must be “concerted activity.” See N.L.R.B. v. Washington Aluminum Co., 1962, 370 U.S. 9, 82 S.Ct. 1099, 8 L.Ed.2d 298. Regulation 1977.12 protects any employee or employees, without requiring concerted activity. Furthermore, § 502 applies only to good faith quitting of labor because of abnormally dangerous conditions. As construed by the Supreme Court, this requires both good faith and objective, ascertainable support for the position that the conditions are in fact abnormally dangerous. See n. 14. The regulation requires only a reasonable belief that the employee is threatened with imminent danger of severe bodily harm or death and that the Act’s provisions could not cure the danger in time. Thus, § 502 lacks an imminence requirement and does not require the threat to be of death or severe bodily harm. Neither does it require that other means be too slow to protect the employee. Regulation 1977.12(b) does not require that the imminent danger be “abnormal”, nor does it incorporate a good faith requirement exclusive of “reasonableness”.

. 116 Cong.Rec. 37625 (1970), reprinted in Legislative History at 510 (Sen. Yarborough).