Public Sector OSHA
Public Sector OSHA promotes consistent and comprehensive safety standards by applying the protections afforded to private sector employees under OSHA to public employees across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Right now, nearly 600,000 public sector workers across Pennsylvania are currently working with no OSHA protections.
In Pennsylvania police officers, firemen, corrections officers, road maintenance workers, and other public employees lack protections provided to private sector workers. State and local public-sector employees are 64% more likely to be injured on the job than private sector employees. In addition, the workplace violence incidence rate is 745% higher for state employees and 535% higher for local government workers.
Named in remembrance of Erie resident Jake Schwab, who was fatally injured at work in 2014, the legislation will provide public employees with a place of work free from hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm and provide reasonable and adequate protection to the lives, safety, and health of employees.
We urge the Senate to pass SB 93, which finally extends these protections to our public sector workforce. Elected unions representatives are joining elected officials in the fight for OSHA protections for public workers because, like legislators, we are elected by our members to represent working families.
For more information, contact PA AFL-CIO Legislative Director Sarah Hammond at shammond@paaflcio.org
2023 Death on the Jobs Report