DOL Assures Withdrawal of OSHA Memo on Grain-Storage Safety

Following complaints that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) had improperly attempted to enforce workplace safety rules on farms
with 10 or fewer employees, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has assured
members of the House Education & the Workforce Committee that OSHA will
withdraw a June 2011 memorandum to regional administrators and state
plan designees about limitations on their authority to “conduct enforcement
activities at small farming operations during OSHA’s grain safety campaign.”
DOL plans to issue new guidance in consultation with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and organizations representing farmers.

Committee members contended that OSHA’s memorandum redefined
“farming operations” to allow OSHA inspectors onto family farms. Their
January 2014 letter stated that under OSHA’s “new and unprecedented
logic, it appears anything outside of the actual growing of crops and raising
livestock could be deemed ‘non-farming operations’ that would subject family
farms to OSHA inspections. The guidance is a clear attempt to circumvent the
law and the will of Congress.”

According to DOL, the memorandum was part of OSHA’s effort to reduce
fatalities in grain-storage facilities and structures; it was “intended to provide
clarification and not to change longstanding OSHA policy.” DOL also stated,
“The Department takes seriously the congressional concerns raised in your
letter and intends to fully comply with the small farms exemption.” In 2011,
DOL indicated that it planned to adopt workplace safety provisions for youth
working in agriculture, and similar concerns about intrusions on family farms
forced the Obama administration to withdraw the proposal the following year.
Additional information about the action appears in Issue 438 of this Update.
See House Education & the Workforce Committee News Release, February 11,
2014.

Issue 513