The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) filed an amici curiae brief, along with 11 other safety- and health-related non-profit organizations, supporting the position of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the appellate case brought against the agency by Allstates Refractory Contractors, LLC (Allstates), which claims OSHA’s safety regulations are unconstitutional.
ISEA President & CEO Cam Mackey said:
ISEA and our fellow amici support a robust federal OSHA to ensure safety and health for workers and their communities.
We believe that Congress was in the right to have OSHA promulgate safety standards, and both the agency and its standards have been extremely successful in keeping the workforce safe. The entire nation has moved forward along with OSHA to make our workforce safe and productive.
ISEA President & CEO Cam Mackey
After the U.S. District Court ruled against Allstates, the company filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in an attempt to strip away OSHA’s power to issue safety standards. If successful, Allstates’ appeal would undermine decades of efforts to protect workers on the job and undercut the goals and expertise of occupational safety and health employers and public interest associations like ISEA and the other organisations who filed the amici curiae brief.
In the findings and declaration of purpose and policy clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, as signed into law by President Nixon in 1970, Congress declared that its purpose was to “assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions.” [29 U.S.C. 651(b).] ISEA believes the Act provided clear, intelligible instructions to the U.S. Department of Labor to write regulations to achieve those ends.
ISEA and its fellow amici strongly believe that OSHA is critical to preventing job injuries and to ensuring safe and worksites, including the requirement of training and use of critical safety and protective equipment. OSHA’s long-standing Congressional mandate to enact and enforce safety standards across workplaces creates an important minimum floor that, in conjunction with training, state efforts, and voluntary employer safety compliance programs, creates a culture of workplace safety and health in the United States.
Among the key points made in the legal brief, ISEA and its fellow amici stated that OSHA has played a critical role in reducing workplace injuries and deaths. Contrary to Allstates’ assertions, workers’ compensation systems are not a substitute for OSHA safety standards. And outside of the federally approved state OSHA plans, a patchwork of varying state regulations is unworkable.
Joanne is the editor for Workplace Wellbeing Professional and has a keen interest in promoting the safety and wellbeing of the global workforce. After earning a bachelor's degree in English literature and media studies, she taught English in China and Vietnam for two years. Before joining Work Well Pro, Joanne worked as a marketing coordinator for luxury property, where her responsibilities included blog writing, photography, and video creation.
