Burden on Businesses Decreased with U.S. Department of Labor Rules

Nov. 21, 2013
The U.S. Department of Labor announced four rules designed to reduce unnecessary burdens on employers by updating or rescinding obsolete regulations and requirements.  

The U.S. Department of Labor announced four rules designed to reduce unnecessary burdens on employers by updating or rescinding obsolete regulations and requirements.

A rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration updates and streamlines the standards for the use of mechanical power presses while the remaining three rules from the Employment and Training Administration rescind outdated Foreign Labor Certification regulations for the H-2A, F-1 and H-1A programs. The rules complement President Obama’s executive order 13610 to modernize the regulatory system and reduce unjustified regulatory burdens. 

“Creating a framework that ensures workers are safe and treated fairly is the right thing to do, and updating rules and standards is also the right thing to do,” said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. “The rules announced today maintain standards, lessen the burden on employers and help grow our economy.”

The OSHA rule, along with a companion notice of proposed rulemaking, revises requirements of OSHA’s standard for mechanical power presses, which punch, form or assemble metal or other materials. Workers can be exposed to hand, finger or arm injuries–often resulting in amputation–if parts of a press are worn, damaged or not operating properly. The new rule will eliminate a requirement for employers to document mandatory weekly inspections of these presses while clarifying the responsibility of employers to perform and document any maintenance or repairs necessary to protect the safety of workers who operate them.

 Removing the weekly inspection and test certifications will reduce 613,600 hours of unnecessary paperwork burden on employers. The final rule will be effective Feb. 18, 2014, unless OSHA receives a significant adverse comment by Dec. 20. If the agency receives a significant adverse comment, the accompanying notice of proposed rulemaking will allow the agency to continue the notice-and-comment component of the rulemaking by withdrawing the direct final rule. Individuals may submit comments electronically at www.regulations.gov, the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Submissions may also be sent via facsimile or mail. 

In addition, OSHA will align the existing standard’s maintenance and repair provisions to the American National Standards Institute standard for safety requirements for mechanical power presses. This standard would explicitly state that maintenance and repair must be completed before the mechanical power press is operated and, in keeping with the ANSI standard, employers would certify maintenance and repair for the entire machine rather than for certain parts of the power press. See Federal Register notice at https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/11/20/2013-27695/record-requirements-in-the-mechanical-power-presses-standard for more details.