Inspecting the Workplace ­ Health and safety inspectors for the PESH program have been hampered in their mission to ensure that the workplaces of public employees are safe.

Survey of health and safety inspection program reveals serious flaws
PESH program 'in shambles'

 
By MARY CAROLINE POWERS

Once a national leader in the arena of workplace safety for public employees, the New York State Department of Labor's Public Employee Safety and Health program is now in shambles.
The program recently came under the scrutiny of the national Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which concluded that staffing levels for PESH are woefully inadequate: 64.5 percent of the federal benchmark for safety inspectors and 77.8 percent for health inspectors. OSHA, which provides 50 percent of the funding for the New York PESH program, has refused to certify it because of continuing deficiencies.

Staffing isn't the only problem. The program is plagued by inadequate training for inspectors. Short staffing is causing long delays in responding to hazardous workplace conditions. A lack of management support has undercut enforcement when infractions are discovered.

"This is reflective of the anti-regulatory stance taken by the Pataki Administration," said PEF President Roger Benson. "But worse, it has left our members, many of whom are working at high-risk jobs, imperiled."
Inspectors cited a shortage of testing equipment such as hazardous-atmosphere monitors that should be used to check confined spaces for oxygen deficiencies or toxic atmospheres - conditions that have caused numerous worker fatalities.

Study conducted
PEF's nearly 54,000 members working in the public sector are covered by the requirements of the PESH Act of 1980.
Concerned about the viability of the program that is supposed to protect its members, the union recently surveyed PESH inspectors. Comments written by the inspectors expose the program's disarray.

Action Urged
PEF leaders recommend a variety of actions be undertaken in order for PESH to meet its legislative mandate of ensuring that "all public employees are afforded the same safeguards in their workplaces as are granted to employees in the private sector."

PEF is calling for the state Legislature to appoint a special commission to investigate the PESH program, the state comptroller to audit PESH, restoration of the principal industrial hygienist position, and development of a plan to provide training at the OSHA Training Institute for inspectors.

PEF also is participating with the state AFL-CIO to gather information from all unions representing public employees about recent experiences with PESH, and what needs to be done to get the program properly staffed and trained.

What the survey found
Of the 58 inspectors employed by the state program, 42 responded to the PEF survey, for an extremely high response rate of 72 percent. Here are some of the results of the survey:
· 90 percent said PESH does not have sufficient staff to meet its legislative mandate.
· 55 percent said there is insufficient support staff in their offices, keeping inspectors out of the field and in the office doing
clerical work.
· 61 percent said excessive delays exist for getting inspection reports and citations typed and approved.
· 49 percent said PESH is not timely in answering complaints.
· 74 percent said PESH does not perform enough inspections to fulfill its mission.
· 27 percent said they or their coworkers were discouraged from responding to a complaint.
· 29 percent said they had been discouraged from writing violations.
· 50 percent said there was inadequate management support for enforcing abatement of violations cited.
· 85 percent said there was insufficient access to training necessary to do the job.
· 83 percent said training, supervision, management and time allocation were insufficient to accomplish the mission of the program.

Inspectors' angst
Many of the PESH inspectors who took part in the PEF survey added additional comments about problems in their work situations. Here are some examples of what they had
to say:
"PESH is a skeleton operation, going through the motions, but not impacting the public sector like it used to."
"We have one safety inspector covering nine counties."
"We have no support staff in our office. This has been the case since October 1998. Citations for inspections conducted during December 1998 still have not been issued."
"There has been virtually no training in the past five years. The whole program is in shambles. It lacks leadership. We lack equipment, training and support."

 

The Communicator Home Page