AFL-CIO Pushing for Health Care Violence Standard
Two AFL-CIO representatives will be taking part in the Jan. 10 public meeting: Rebecca Reindel, a senior safety & health specialist, and Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO's director of Safety and Health.
OSHA's public meeting this week is an opportunity for health care workers and administrators to comment on need for a standard intended to increase health workers' protection against violence on the job. OSHA published a Request for Information (RFI) on Dec. 7, 2016, and announced it will hold the meeting from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time at the U.S. Department of Labor's Great Hall, 200 Constitution Ave. NW in Washington, D.C.
The AFL-CIO sent word last Friday that two representatives will be taking part in the meeting -- they are Rebecca Reindel, a senior safety & health specialist, and Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO's director of Safety and Health, whose term as a labor representative on OSHA's National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety & Health was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2016.
The AFL-CIO was one of the labor organizations that petitioned Labor Secretary Tom Perez in July 2016 seeking an OSHA standard. The Teamsters, Steelworkers, and SEIU all joined in the petition, which alleged that the health care industry violence problem already recognized by OSHA "has grown progressively worse."
OSHA's RFI asks for information on effective strategies for reducing incidents of violence in health care and social assistance settings, and the agency set a deadline for comments and materials of April 6, 2017.