Labor Secretary Lynn Martin Wednesday gave North Carolina a 90-day deadline to improve its worker health-and-safety efforts or face a federal takeover of its program.
The ultimatum was called significant by union officials and health experts because it is only the second takeover ever threatened by the government. Indiana faced a similar warning in 1980 but won federal approval to keep its program.
”We must not and will not permit a state to operate a program that is below standard,” Martin remarked at a Washington news conference.
The action was prompted, she said, by a federal investigation following the tragic fire Sept. 3 at a Hamlet, N.C., poultry-processing plant. The fire killed 25 workers and injured 50.
Investigators later discovered that at least two fire-exit doors at the 90-worker plant were closed and a loading dock was blocked the day of the fire. The Imperial Food Products plant did not have a sprinkler system, nor had it ever been been inspected by state officials.
”The fact this place had never been inspected caused us to have some real concern,” said Peg Seminario, safety-and-health director for the AFL-CIO, which asked the government Sept. 11 to immediately share control of North Carolina`s program and ultimately take it over.
In October the federal government sent its workers to assist the North Carolina program, where staffing levels were the nation`s lowest, according to the AFL-CIO.
”One of the things that came clear from the (U.S.) investigation is that the federal government has not been investigating the states,” added Seminario.
Joseph Kinney, director of the Chicago-based National Safe Workplace Institute, which recently issued a highly critical report of worker-safety programs in 21 states, hailed Martin`s move as an effort to improve state-run programs.
The federal government runs the worker-safety programs in 29 states, including Illinois.
Among the states, North Carolina ranked third lowest in the average fine given for life-threatening violations, $550, compared with $1,260 in federally controlled states, said the report by Kinney`s organization.
But Kinney said Martin`s action might be more political than anything, since North Carolina`s program is not the worst. ”It is not reasonable to look at North Carolina alone when you have a lot of data that show other states are as weak or weaker,” he explained. ”We`ve never said North Carolina was the worst or close to it.”
His organization has urged the government to seize control of programs in Maryland, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah.
Davitt McAteer, director of the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center in Washington, added that a federal takeover of North Carolina`s program would not be a total solution because the government`s own efforts are understaffed and overworked.
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”If the feds had North Carolina before, they wouldn`t have inspected Hamlet as well,” he said.
The North Carolina program had previously drawn little attention, he said, because of the small number of unions in the state and the fact that
”employers have been pretty happy with the state agency.”
Martin and Gerald Scannell, director of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said North Carolina officials had not been cooperative during the government`s recent probe.
John Brooks, North Carolina`s labor commissioner, issued a statement later challenging the government`s claims on the state program`s shortcomings. He also predicted that the state would be able to reach an agreement with federal officials.
Brooks disputed, for example, the government`s call for North Carolina to revise the way it handles serious violations.
”We cite what we find,” Brooks said, adding that the state`s low rate of injuries and illness are due to the fact that ”there are likely fewer serious violations in the majority of workplaces in our state.”
In its list of complaints, the government said North Carolina`s staff has had a high vacancy rate, and many of the state`s problems can be explained by the shortage of permanent staff members.
In addition, it said the state gives a low priority to workers`
complaints that they are discriminated against for reporting unsafe conditions.