Kentucky legislators passed a law in 2021 that stopped Kentucky Occupational Safety and Healthy Program, or OSH, and the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet from adopting any new regulations that are more strict than federal minimums.
Now GOP Rep. Walker Thomas from Hopkinsville, who sponsored the 2021 bill, is back to block enforcement of any regulations created before 2021 designed to protect the health and safety of Kentucky workers beyond the federal minimums.
HB 398 would eliminate state-specific regulations protecting those working on high voltage electrical lines, unloading bulk hazardous liquids and exposed to hazardous materials, according to a letter from Cabinet Secretary Jamie Link.
Advocates who came to the committee to oppose the bill said it would weaken the state's ability to protect workers from unsafe conditions, but Thomas said it balances worker protections while encouraging economic growth. It passed a committee vote Thursday.
“It's very confusing for businesses that might have multiple businesses in different states, and so we're just trying to make it uniform where they can look at one set of regulations and know what the law is,” Thomas said.
That’s become a common complaint of worker protection laws and regulations in Kentucky. Last year, two bills would have rolled back state laws dealing with child labor protections and for adult workers, like lunch or rest breaks and seventh day overtime. Then-Rep. Phillip Pratt, who did not run for reelection last year, used the same justification for the bills, neither of which ended up passing into law.
The legislation does more than halt the enforcement of state-specific safety regulations; it would also allow Franklin County Circuit Court to award court costs and lawyer fees against OSH if an employer appeals a citation. The bill contains no caps for possible monetary awards, which Secretary Link described as creating “substantial financial exposure” for taxpayers.
Representatives with the AFL-CIO union and the Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council spoke in opposition to the bill. Dustin Reinstedler, president of the Kentucky branch of the AFL-CIO, called it a “direct assault” on Kentucky workers.
“This bill is not just simply a technicality,” Reinstedler said. “It weakens the state's ability to protect workers from unsafe conditions. It reduces accountability for employers. It removes essential rights to report retaliation, and it shifts the balance of power in favor of employers at the expense of the people who show up to work every day to do the work that powers the states.”
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