1)  Expanding OSHA coverage to public employees (state, county, municipal and federal employees) who are not currently covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act).

2)  Raising penalties for employers who kill or endanger workers:  Penalties in the current law are so weak that they do not provide a disincentive for employers to break the law. This bill updates OSHA civil penalties (which have remained unchanged since 1990) and strengthens criminal penalties to include felony charges in situations where an employer's willful violation of the OSH Act results in a worker's death or serious injury.

3)  Expanding coverage for millions of other employees who work for airlines and railroads, as well as for Department of Energy contractors, who are inadequately covered by current laws because their health and safety coverage is left to other government agencies that do not treat worker safety as a priority.

4)  Improving protection for whistleblowers:  The current law provides insufficient protection for employees who make complaints about job safety hazards. This bill gives employees the right to refuse hazardous work that may kill or seriously injure them.  It also modernizes outdated whistleblower provisions by incorporating successful administrative procedures adopted in other laws, such as the Surface Transportation Act.  Click here for more information on the whistleblower provisions of PAWA. 

5)  Improving the rights of workers and families:  The bill requires OSHA to investigate all cases of death as well as incidents involving serious injuries.  It gives victims and their families the right to meet with DOL investigators, and gives workers and their representatives greater rights in the enforcement system.

6)  Prohibiting employers from discouraging the reporting of injuries and illnesses by requiring that regulations on injury and illness recordkeeping include prohibitions on employer policies or practices that discourage employees from reporting their work-related injuries or illnesses.

7)  Compensating workers for time spent on inspections:  The bill clarifies that the time spent by a worker accompanying an inspector is considered "time worked," and therefore must be compensated.

8)  Requiring employers to restrict hazardous violations during the time that such violations are being contested, reviewed and resolved.

9)  Increasing civil penalties for employer violations to account for inflation and setting a mandatory minimum penalties for violations involving fatalities that are lower for small employers than for larger employers.

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Click here for a PDF of the Protecting America's Workers Act

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