The Honorable Douglas L. Parker, Assistant Secretary of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Summary

Letter dated November 15, 2023, from the House Committee on Small Business to Douglas L. Parker, Assistant Secretary of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), about the proposed rule change to the Representatives of Employers and Employees regulation on who may accompany OSHA compliance officers during workplace inspections. The Committee says the rule would let third parties such as union representatives and community activists gain access to private businesses, raising privacy concerns, and calls the phrases "good cause" and "reasonably necessary" vague. It requests information by November 29, 2023, through numbered questions on costs, those definitions and privacy. The signature block lists Roger Williams, Chairman.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

                                            November 15, 2023

The Honorable Douglas L. Parker
Assistant Secretary of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
201 12th St. S. Suite 401
Arlington, VA 22202

Dear Assistant Secretary Parker:

        The House Committee on Small Business (the Committee) writes to inquire about the
recent proposed rule change to the Representatives of Employers and Employees regulation.1
The proposed rule would revise regulations regarding who can be authorized by employees to act
as their representative to accompany the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s
(OSHA) compliance officers during physical workplace inspections.2 While the rule will cause
small entities to incur some additional costs, the most alarming aspect is the rule would allow
third parties to access information otherwise not available to them, raising significant privacy
concerns.3 The Committee writes to request further information about how the OSHA intends to
ensure small entities and their workers are protected.

        The proposed rule would expand the definition of what types of “third parties” may
accompany the officers on the OSHA inspections. In practice, this would mean that third parties,
such as union representatives and community activists, would gain access to non-organized
private businesses on private property—access typically denied to unions.4 Consequently, this
would likely lead to increased pressure on businesses to allow union organizing and pressure on
workers to join unions and pay dues they may not be able to afford, while diminishing the
privacy of business owners. Additionally, this proposed rule would insert unpredictability and
instability into the OSHA inspection process.5 Businesses cannot be sure whether the inspection
is going to be a regular OSHA walkaround focusing on workplace safety or whether they should
be prepared to have hostile groups entering their property.

       Further, the proposed rule states that a third party “may accompany the Compliance
Safety and Health Officer during the inspection if, in the judgment of the Compliance Safety and
1
  Representatives of Emp’r and Emp., 88 FR 59825 (2023) (to be codified at 29 C.F.R. §1903).
2
  Id.
3
  John D. Surma and Savannah M. Selvaggio, OSHA Proposes Rule to Allow Third Parties to Participate in
Workplace Walkaround Inspections, OGLETREE DEAKINS (Sept. 1, 2023).
4
  Representatives of Emp’r and Emp., 88 FR 59825 (2023) (to be codified at 29 C.F.R. §1903).
5
  John D. Surma and Savannah M. Selvaggio, OSHA Proposes Rule to Allow Third Parties to Participate in
Workplace Walkaround Inspections, OGLETREE DEAKINS (Sept. 1, 2023).
The Honorable Douglas L. Parker
November 15, 2023
Page 2 of 2

Health Officer, good cause has been shown why their participation is reasonably necessary to
the conduct of an effective and thorough physical inspection of the workplace.”6 These are vague
phrases which will no doubt require small entities to hire compliance officers or legal counsel to
ensure compliance.

       It is important for agencies to examine the impacts their actions will have on small
businesses, which make up 99.9 percent of all businesses in the United States, when passing any
new rule. We therefore request the following information as soon as possible but no later than
November 29, 2023:

      1. The OSHA has determined that the proposed rule does not impose any costs on
         employers.7 Did the OSHA consider the time it takes to become familiar with the rule and
         the potential costs to hire a legal counsel to comply with the rule?

      2. How does the OSHA define “good cause” and “reasonably necessary”?

      3. How will the OSHA communicate those definitions to the affected entities?

      4. What criteria, if any, are Compliance Safety and Health Officers required to use when
         judging whether the third party’s participation is reasonably necessary?

      5. How does the OSHA intend to address the privacy concerns that this proposed rule
         raises?

       To schedule the delivery of your response or ask any related follow-up questions, please
contact Committee on Small Business Majority Staff at (202) 225-5821. The Committee on
Small Business has broad authority to investigate “problems of all types of small business” under
House Rule X. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this inquiry.

                                                In God We Trust,




                                             Roger Williams
                                                 Chairman
                                         Committee on Small Business



cc:        The Honorable Nydia M. Velasquez, Ranking Member
           Committee on Small Business

6
    Representatives of Emp’r and Emp., 88 FR 59825 (2023) (to be codified at 29 C.F.R. §1903).
7
    Id.


File and source

File

2023-11-15_HouseSBC-Majority-to-dol_letter-to-dol-re-workplace-inspections.pdf

Size

157,424 bytes

SHA-256

092a2d35d164663052621ef68542e17536a6e260a6a57bcc9782adbd221b7f92

Our copy

2023-11-15_HouseSBC-Majority-to-dol_letter-to-dol-re-workplace-inspections.pdf

Original

smallbusiness.house.gov