OSHA penalty reductions for all types of violations tended to favor non unionized employers in federal Region VI and unionized employers in federal Region X. Reductions in willful violation penalties were markedly greater for unionized employers in Region X. It appears that federal and state department’s of labor may be influenced by traditional regional attitudes towards organized labor.It is generally accepted that politically conservative or predominantly agricultural areas of the country such as the deep south have a tradition of anti-union bias. Conversely, liberal or cosmopolitan areas such as the west coast are often seen as supporters of organized labor and strongly in favor of worker rights. In order to test if these attitudes extend to OSHA enforcement actions, final penalty reduction data for unionized versus non unionized employers was examined during a three year period for all classes of violations and for willful violations alone.
The combined average final penalty reduction for all regions during the search period was 39% with essentially no observed differences between the two classes of employers. Examination of the same data by region revealed varying overall average penalty reductions. Most had only minor differences based on unionized status with two notable exceptions. Region VI, encompassing Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, reduced penalties an average of 44%. It had a four percentage point difference between unionized and non unionized employers, favoring those who were non unionized. Region X, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, reduced penalties an average of 37% but with an 11 percentage point difference, favoring unionized employers. All remaining regions differed no more than two percentage points based on unionized status. It was interesting to note that Region IX, which includes the states of Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada had the smallest average overall penalty reduction of only 21%. This would be consistent with the observation that California is one of the most heavily environmentally regulated and rigorously enforced states in the country.
Going one step further, the same data was examined for reductions in willful violations only. This type of violation is only issued to employers who knowingly, intentionally and purposefully disregard an existing OSHA standard. Since willful violations are issued less frequently, are given extraordinary attention and often must be considered by top enforcement personnel, reductions in willful violation penalties were judged more reflective of regional government attitudes. Nationally, willful penalty reductions averaged 45% with no difference between unionized and non unionized employers. Regionally, the two classes of employers had percentage point differences ranging 7-19 again, except for Region X. The data revealed an average of 83% reduction for unionized versus only 20% for non unionized employers. This was an extraordinary difference of 63 percentage points!
It should be pointed out that analysis of this data by region encompassed both federal OSHA and state departments of labor enforcement actions. In order to determine if these regional attitudes differ between federal and state OSHA plans, it would be necessary to perform the same analyses by state. Furthermore, one should not construe from this data that there exists some insidious regional government conspiracy to undermine certain businesses based upon their unionized status. Rather, employers should recognize that laws are written and enforced by people. Using the past as a guide, one will be prepared for how they may be treated in the event of an OSHA inspection and plan their resources accordingly.
Copyright 1997 OSHA DATA (tm), Maplewood, NJ.
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