Protecting America’s Workers Act

The Protecting America’s Workers Act, most recently introduced on January 5, 2011 in the US House of Representatives, is our federal legislature’s most recent effort to strengthen OSHA and protect US workers. The new legislation, if adopted, would:

-Enhance protection from retaliation for whistleblowers who report dangerous work conditions; -prohibit employers from discouraging employee reports of injury; -increase investigation of workplace fatalities; and -increase civil and criminal penalties for violators, particularly repeat offenders.

While the bill remains in committee, we applaud the government’s first effort in decades to strengthen OSHA. The full text of the bill can be found at: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-190