REPORT BY THE PRESIDENT'S TASK FORCE ON PUERTO RICO'S STATUS (PROSHA)

Muchos esperamos el informe del presidente Obama con ansias para leer su contenido sobre el estatus de Puerto Rico.  Para sorpresa de todos, el informe trajo más asuntos de lo esperado.  Así pues, descubrimos asuntos sobre seguridad y salud ocupacional en este informe.

Traigo los señalamientos a mi blog para beneficio de la comunidad de profesionales en “safety”, considerando que no todos leerían el informe.  Nunca antes, que yo tenga conocimiento, un hubo un informe como éste.  Estos señalamientos reflejan el arduo trabajo que hay por hacer tanto en el sector público como en el privado.

Se preguntarán porqué menciono el sector privado, sencillo, a mayor presión en los empleados de PROSHA mayores inspecciones serán realizadas.  Aunque, para esto debe haber un plan de trabajo que hasta la fecha no lo hay.  La presente administración únicamente ha trabajado en crear un desasosiego y presiones indebidas en los empleados y no ha traído herramientas que promuevan el desarrollo y desempeño laboral. Todos los que asumieron puestos administrativos en enero del 2009, lo hicieron por ego y sin metas de trabajo.  Hoy los informes de OSHA y el reciente del Presidente Obama constatan esta impresión.

No tengo dudas que cada Especialista de Seguridad y Salud de PROSHA, cada día dá lo mejor de sí para que el empleado puertorriqueño tenga un lugar de trabajo seguro.

Ante ustedes los señalamientos del informe pág. 51-53:

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW AND TASK FORCE'S ECONOMIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation

To address these weaknesses, the Task Force recommends that DOL provide assistance to use Puerto Rico's existing mobile units and service points more effectively to increase the number of jobseekers and employers served.

DOL should help bolster Puerto Rico's assistance program resources and help develop oversight that decreases local political interference, while simultaneously ensuring local participation and strengthen­ing accountability and performance-driven operations in the local employment offices.

The Task Force encourages local employment agencies in Puerto Rico to mirror the structure used by Federal agencies to define a nonpolitical management structure designed to ensure: (1) protections against undue influence; (2) continuous improvement; and (3) depth of knowledge in program opera­tions and management.

Timeline

These recommendations are ongoing.

Improving Workplace Compliance and Knowledge about Workers' Rights

Issue

There are several related concerns associated with workplace safety compliance in Puerto Rico and workers' knowledge of their rights. First, evaluation reports have identified serious deficiencies in the operations of Puerto Rico's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The Federal Annual Monitoring Evaluation Baseline Special Evaluations Report for FY 2009, pointed to many administrative deficiencies including:

*       Compliance officers lack training including basic and core training courses;

*       Abatement is not tracked, verified, or documented;

*       Employees are not interviewed, and health hazards are not evaluated during inspections;

*       Fatalities are not fully investigated to determine cause or willfulness of the violation;

*  Violations are not properly documented nor investigated; and

.   Fatality letters are not sent to the next of kin.¹⁵

As with many states who are coping with the recession, Puerto Rico's budget crisis has affected compli­ance offices as compliance workers have been reduced by 27 percent, in addition, Puerto Rico was 25 percent below its target in the number of workplace inspections, having conducted 1,334 of its projected inspection goal of 1,679 in FY2009.

Second, workplaces in Puerto Rico are more likely to experience fatalities even though their rate of seri­ous OSHA violations is not particularly high. OSHA's FY 2009 special evaluation report found that Puerto Rico OSHA, under its plan, was not properly identifying hazards or classifying violations. Although the rate of serious, willful, and repeat violations identified in Puerto Rico (51 percent) is somewhat higher than the 44 percent average among States with State OSHA plans,¹⁶ it is still much lower than the Federal OSHA rate of 81 percent.¹⁷The failure of Puerto Rico OSHA to identify and cite all serious hazards may have some impact, but does not fully explain the fact that occupational fatality is higher in Puerto Rico than in the United States as a whole.

The calculated occupational fatality rate for Puerto Rico was 4.4 fatal work injuries per 100,000 workers, or about one-third higher than the rate of 3.3 per 1OO,OOO full-time workers reported for the United States based on preliminary data for 2009.¹⁸ High-risk industries in Puerto Rico also appear to have fatal injury rates well above those of the United States. The fatality rates in the private construction industry and the private transportation and warehousing industry are 27.7 and 31.1 per 100,000 workers respectively, well above the 9.7 and 12.1 rates in the United States overall.¹⁹

Occupational injury and illness rates also appear to be higher in Puerto Rico than in the United States as a whole. The incidence rate of injury and illness cases that involved days away from work in Puerto Rico was 278.4 per 10,000 full-time workers in private industry while it was 106.4 for the United States.³⁰ Some of the difference may result from differences in the industrial and occupational compositions of the workforce in Puerto Rico and the United States as a whole. But, as with fatality rates, rates of occu­pational injuries and illnesses with days away from work are higher in Puerto Rico than in the United States as a whole both overall and for certain industrial sectors, such as construction, transportation, and warehousing. These sectors are important in the economic development of Puerto Rico, but it is important to achieve economic goals in a way that is consonant with worker safety.

Finally, the large number of workers classifying themselves as self-employed in the monthly household surveys (14 percent) suggests that there are likely workers who are misclassified as self-employed or as independent contractors rather than employees. When workers are misclassified, employers may not grant these workers their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and many workers may not be aware that they have these rights.

DOL has already begun to take a number of steps to address these issues. The Federal OSHA is working with Puerto Rico OSHA to address the latter's program deficiencies. Examples of this work include the following:

*    In November 2010, Federal OSHA Training institute staff conducted an Accident Investigation course for Puerto Rico OSHA compliance officers and area directors, which included training on policies and procedures on contacting families of victims of workplace fatalities, investigat­ing causes of workplace fatalities, properly classifying safety and health violations, and citing willful violations.

*       OSHA Training Institute staff also trained Puerto Rico OSHA field staff and area directors in December 2010 on interviewing employees or union representatives during workplace inspec­tions. The Puerto Rico field staff will be trained during FY 2011 on proper documentation and classification of violations.

*       Area Directors were trained in December 2010 on tracking, verifying, and documenting the abatement of safety and health violations and on when to expand a partial inspection, such as to investigate an observed health hazard. Compliance officers will be trained in these areas in early 2011.

·       Puerto Rico OSHA is working to develop and implement a comprehensive training plan for its compliance officers as outlined in a Federal OSHA directive.