Congressional Bill Aims to Lower Fines for Minor OSHA Violations

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As anyone who's been following the California Division of Occupational Safety & Health's (CalOSHA) interactions with the adult industry knows, the vast majority of violations the agency has found at adult entertainment studios and locations are minor ones: electrical cords not tidy (aka "non-compliant wiring"), "contaminated waste" containers not present (even if there's no "contaminated waste" to be found), no showers or laundry facilities on premises—the list is pretty long. And companies have paid some fairly hefty fines for such "violations." But CalOSHA's ability to nickel-and-dime the industry for such minor infractions may be coming to an end, thanks to a new bill introduced in Congress on April 22 by Missouri Republican Rep. Vicki Hartzler. Designated as H.R. 1932, Hartzler's bill  would "amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to allow employers a grace period to abate certain occupational health and safety violations before being subject to a penalty under such Act." Basically, the bill would establish a "grace period" for minor violations such that the agency would not be allowed to assess a penalty that was "determined not to be willful, repeated, or serious," and would eliminate penalties altogether if the violation is fixed/repaired ("abated") during the period of time that existing law allows for such abatement. Some examples of violations that Hartzler's bill would cover, which she referenced in a press release, include "cords outside a conduit, a yellow line not painted in the right spot or an emergency eyewash station’s water being too cold." "These enterprising individuals don't need to be hampered, they need to be unleashed," Hartzler said of the "small employers" her bill is designed to protect. "This legislation is designed to promote an environment where businesses constantly improve worker safety while being able to use their resources to continue [to] boost the economy and create jobs." Opponents of the bill, however, argue that the bill "minimizes the importance of safety and health regulations," and Celeste Monforton, a lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University, described the bill as a "get out of jail free card." "We have an enforcement program. They're supposed to follow the law and know what the law is," Monforton said. The bill is currently before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has yet to take action on it.