KY House gets business-backed bill that would weaken worker safety protections
Kentucky would weaken its workplace safety protections to make the state more “business friendly” under a bill backed by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce that’s advancing to the House floor.
House Bill 398 was approved Thursday by the House Committee on Economic Development and Workforce Investment.
“To keep our businesses and attract new economic opportunities, legislators must follow through on the progress they have made in past sessions to ensure worker safety while also creating fair and more transparent rules for employers,” state Rep. Walker Thomas, R-Hopkinsville, told the committee as he introduced his bill.
Thomas was joined at the witness table by Kate Shanks, senior vice president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and Kyle Johnson, an attorney at Frost Brown Todd in Louisville who represents management in workplace disputes. They said they helped Thomas draft the measure.
But Jamie Link, secretary of the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet, sent a letter to the committee to share his “serious financial and programmatic concerns” about the bill.
The bill would set up the state of Kentucky as a target for expensive litigation from businesses, erode worker protections established in state law and slow the state’s ability to respond to an “imminent” safety threat at a workplace, Link said.
“Kentucky’s workforce and industries, including tourism, would lose protections and guidance in areas such as high voltage electrical lines, bulk hazardous liquid unloading and employee exposures to hazardous materials protections should state-specific Occupational Safety and Health regulations be revoked,” Link wrote.
Thomas’ bill would further shrink the authority of the Kentucky Department of Workplace Standards, which monitors most private employers, so it would mirror the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Kentucky is one of 29 states that OSHA authorized to operate its own workplace safety program, sometimes with state standards stricter than federal law. But the Republican-led legislature passed a 2021 law to prevent the state from adopting workplace safety rules that are tougher than what OSHA enforces on the federal level.
Thomas also sponsored the 2021 law, which Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear unsuccessfully vetoed.
New rules to help employers
Thomas’ new bill would set more restrictions on the Department of Workplace Standards, including:
▪ Specifying that Kentucky not only cannot adopt new workplace safety rules that are stricter than federal law, but its state officials cannot enforce any existing state standards “more stringent than the corresponding federal provision” enforced by OSHA.
▪ Limiting who can ask for an investigation into alleged safety and health violations to current employees or “qualified representatives,” defined as a person with the scientific or technical knowledge necessary to conduct an investigation. Among those who no longer could make a request would be former employees with relevant information about safety problems and the families of workers killed in an accident.
▪ Requiring requests for an investigation to include the date the violation was alleged to have occurred.
▪ Setting deadlines for workers who allege they were fired because they reported violations, requiring them to make their claim within 30 days and requiring the department to rule on their claim within six months of the alleged violation.
▪ Reducing the damages available to a wrongly fired whistle-blower from “all appropriate relief” to being rehired with back pay.
▪ Requiring the department to let employers accompany state officials around the workplace during a safety and health inspection.
▪ Establishing a “de minimis violation,” which would be a violation that “has no direct or immediate relationship to safety or health.” The department would have to issue a citation for de minimis violations within six months of an incident. Those citations wouldn’t carry a civil monetary penalty or be considered a repeat violation.
▪ Allowing businesses that successfully appeal a workplace safety or health citation to Franklin Circuit Court to request a financial award from the department for their expenses, including legal fees and court costs.
Labor leaders protest
Two labor leaders testified against the bill, saying that Kentucky’s stricter workplace safety standards have been a good thing for the state. Federal OSHA rules don’t offer as rigorous protection in Kentucky-specific industries, such as bourbon distilling, they said.
“House Bill 398 threatens the very foundation of workplace safety in our state and its impact will be felt in every factory, in every construction site, in every workplace where Kentuckians earn their living,” said Dustin Reinstedler, president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO.
“This bill’s not simply a technicality, it’s a direct assault on the workers of Kentucky,” Reinstedler said. “It weakens the state’s ability to protect workers from unsafe conditions. It reduces accountability from employers. It removes essential rights to report retaliation. And it shifts the balance of power in favor of employers at the expense of people who show up to work every day.”
The House committee overwhelmingly passed Thomas’ bill on Thursday, although several members expressed concerns.
State Rep. Al Gentry, D-Louisville, said lawmakers should zealously guard the state’s right to set its own higher standards.
“I believe in helping, not harming, our workforce,” said Gentry, who voted against the bill. “I don’t understand why we’re relinquishing the rights that are given to us — states’ rights.”
State Rep. Vanessa Grossl, R-Georgetown, said she was troubled “that this bill would strip away the ability of a parent or spouse in dismemberment or fatality cases to issue a request for a safety inspection on a family member’s behalf.”
“While I do want to be cooperative with the business community and bring us up to speed with the federal standards, I also have deep respect for the families of the workers,” said Grossl, who voted for the bill but said she wants to see changes made on the House floor.
