Dive Brief:
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Global engineering and construction firm AECOM announced Thursday that Andrew Peters, senior vice president and chief safety officer, has been appointed to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health.
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AECOM said Peters has been integral to the "culture of safety" at the company and led the initiative that resulted in a recordable-incident rate 7.5% below its 2015 goals.
- The 15-member committee advises Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez on construction industry safety and health, as well as policy issues. In addition, OSHA consults with the ACCSH in the establishment of new construction standards.
Dive Insight:
Few contractors would disagree that the construction industry's input into proposed regulations prior to OSHA's writing and enacting them would be a good thing. That perspective could have perhaps avoided recent regulation impasses in which industry groups said that they provided the agency with comments and suggestions but that their opinions were mostly ignored.
For example, OSHA revised its silica-exposure standard this year, and construction trade groups like the National Association of Home Builders pushed back by filing legal challenges to its implementation. According to the NAHB and others, the increased monitoring and recordkeeping requirements will cost the industry $5 billion annually. OSHA, however, said that the new rule should cost only $500 million a year. If someone breathes in too much silica dust — a likely occurrence on the job site since the dust is produced common cutting and grinding operations — he or she can develop diseases like silicosis, lung cancer and tuberculosis, so preventing exposure is a worthwhile endeavor. However, critics of the regulation, which went into effect in June, said increased enforcement of existing laws would produce better results.
Another contentious order that construction groups have been fighting is the DOL's new overtime rule. The regulation, which NAHB Chairman ED Brady called "sheer arrogance" on the part of the DOL, raises the overtime-exempt annual threshold for salaried workers from $23,660 to $47,476. Employers must pay overtime to those making less than the threshold if they work more than 40 hours in a week. The Associated Builders and Contractors argued that once the rule went into effect, employers would move more employees to an hourly rate or reduce hours and benefits. The good news for opponents is that the U.S. House Representatives passed the Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools, and Nonprofits Act late last month, which delays implementation of the rule by at least six months.