employee safety and health program

SPOTLIGHT ON SAFETY — AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Paul Cole joins PEF President Roger Benson and an injured CSEA member, Joe Newton, in calling for major improvements to the state Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) program. The union leaders told a packed news conference in Albany the program is failing miserably in its mission to protect workers on the job in New York State. Benson serves as co-chair of the NYS AFL-CIO’s Public Employees Occupational Health and Safety Committee.
— Photos by Tim Raab
Legislators, comptroller agree to investigate
Unions blast state-run public employee safety and health program

By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
A half-dozen unions representing more than 500,000 public employees held a news conference in Albany in late February to call attention to the serious on-the-job hazards facing state and local government workers, because of problems with the state’s Public Employees Safety and Health (PESH) program.

“We owe it to all of our public employees, who devote their lives to protecting and serving the citizens of this state, to ensure that the PESH program fully and effectively enforces safety and health standards,” said NYS AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Paul Cole.

The NYS AFL-CIO’s Public Employees Occupational Health and Safety Committee, co-chaired by PEF President Roger E. Benson and Arthur Cheliotes, president of Local 1180 of the Communications Workers of America, told reporters the program is deficient in carrying out its legislative mandate to enforce minimum federal health and safety standards for New York state’s public employees.

More staff, training needed
As first reported in the March Communicator, a PEF survey of all the PESH inspectors found the program is severely under-staffed, and remaining staff are not getting the proper training and, in some cases, also not getting the appropriate equipment to do their jobs.
“These problems result in lengthy delays in getting safety and health inspections and sometimes in inadequate inspections,” Benson said. And the number of PESH inspections has been steadily declining, from 3,432 in 1997 to 1,863 in 1999.

Joining the labor leaders in calling for improvements to the PESH program were Joe Newtown of Potsdam, a school bus garage mechanic who suffered a severe back injury on the job, and John Caputo, Safety and Health Director for Local 100 of the Transit Workers Union. Both urged a major overhaul of the PESH program.
“PESH was once a law enforcement agency, committed to improving occupational safety and health by performing inspections and issuing violations,” Caputo said. “If PESH is ever to be a law-enforcement agency again, it will need a complete overhaul; it will need to be dismantled and rebuilt.”

“PESH is not doing an adequate job of protecting the workplace health and safety of the 125,000 city an state workers we represent,” said Lee Saunders, administrator of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in New York City.

“The most blatant example of PESH negligence occurred last year following the workplace death of one of our members, Christopher Postiglione. Its own Field Operations Manual requires PESH to give the highest priority to workplace fatality investigations. Yet the bureau did not hold an opening conference on the investigation until two weeks after being notified of brother Postiglione’s death,” Saunders said.
“There is no excuse for anything less than 100 percent commitment to worker safety and health,” said Civil Service Employees Association President Danny Donohue. “The standards for safe worksites are not arbitrary or frivolous; they are intended to protect people’s lives and well being and should not be subject to political games.”

PESH needs help
And the state labor leaders called on state lawmakers to take a number of steps, including appointing a special legislative commission to investigate the PESH program’s staffing patterns, training, equipment supplies and charges that PESH managers improperly interfere with inspections and/or recommended enforcement actions.
Benson announced that the unions have a commitment from state Assembly Member Catherine Nolan, chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, to conduct a thorough investigation of the PESH program to ensure that these problems are addressed.

The unions also recommended the state comptroller conduct an audit. Comptroller H. Carl McCall said he will look into their concerns, but a solution rests with the governor and state lawmakers.
“My last audit of PESH found that the program wasn’t working, and it’s still not working,” McCall said.
“We’re going to look at PESH and determine if another audit is warranted,” he said,.“But the governor has to show some leadership. PESH is broken and it’s up to the Legislature and the governor to fix it.”

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