Governor Patrick commemorates Workers’ Memorial Day with executive order extending OSHA protections to state employees
Rebuffed by previous administrations, safety advocates and unions hail the effort as critical to preventing workplace deaths and injuries
Click here to read the Executive Order
Click here to read the Workers' Memorial Day Report
April 28, 2009, Boston - At a ceremony commemorating Massachusetts workers killed and injured on the job in 2008, Governor Deval Patrick announced a new executive order that could help prevent state employees from meeting a similar fate.   The executive order calls for the establishment of safety committees in all state agencies to document workplace hazards and safety measures needed.   Safety experts and unions have been calling for the state to establish safety protections for public employees for years, but prior to the Patrick administration had been rebuffed.
“This Executive Order demonstrates the Governor’s commitment to protecting the health and safety of state employees in a truly meaningful way,” announced Suzanne M. Bump, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  “We look forward to working closely with our employees’ representatives to improve the safety of our state workforce.” 
Unlike their counterparts in the private sector, public employees in the Commonwealth are not covered by safety requirements under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).  When OSHA was enacted in the 1970’s, it gave states the option to extend safety protections to public employees.  Though twenty-seven states already apply these regulations to public employees, Massachusetts does not.
“State employees do jobs that are just as or more dangerous than those in the private sector," said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, “We applaud the Governor for taking this essential step toward instituting safety measures that will most certainly prevent more needless workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths."
State employees include highway workers exposed daily to lead dust, maintenance workers who work with heavy machinery, and electrical workers exposed to electrical hazards. In fact, the call from unions and safety activists for health and safety protections for public employees escalated after the death of a Logan Airport electrician, Roger LeBlanc in 2004, whose electrocution may have been prevented had OSHA safety measures been implemented.
"It's long past time that our Commonwealth's government begin to hold itself to the same workplace safety standards as the private sector and begin the work of providing safer workplaces for our public employees. Our public employees are under enough fire in these difficult times. The very least we can do is get this Executive Order signed and give workers these protections. The Patrick Administration deserves a great deal of credit for taking this important step,” said Robert Haynes, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.  “This is a great victory for the Labor Movement and workplace safety advocates, but there's much more to be done and we're committed to see it through."
 
Each year, Commonwealth residents spend more than $50 million in workers’ compensation costs for injuries and illnesses incurred by state employees alone.  According to data provided by New Hampshire’s Department of Labor, after implementing OSHA protections to state employees in 1998, the state of New Hampshire reduced their workers comp claims by an average of 51% - and between the years 2001 and 2004 they saved $3.3 million. 
“This is a great day for public employees in Massachusetts who are finally going to be protected by the same safety rules that have protected employees in the private sector for almost 40 years,” said Kevin Preston, Massachusetts director of the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE).  “On behalf of the 20,000 state employees represented by SEIU Locals 888 and 509 and SEIU/NAGE, we want to thank Governor Patrick for taking this long overdue step. With more effective safety rules, employees will have fewer on the job injuries and taxpayers will enjoy considerable savings from each accident that doesn't happen. It's good policy and its good business.”
A report released yesterday by MassCOSH and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO highlighted a state electrical worker who suffered an injury in 2008.  An investigation by the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety found that the accident might have been prevented had the state instituted a number of basic safety measures which would have been required under OSHA.
 “Today, professional state employees can feel gratified to know that the hard work they do and risks they take for all of us who live in Massachusetts is held in the high regard it deserves,” said Joe Dorant, president of the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists (MOSES). “Ensuring the protection of every worker’s health and safety should be a basic and fundamental right.”