Safety Knights

It's not officially a rule yet - just a proposal.

The issue, as noted by Phillip Russell's post today on LinkedIn, is whether OSHA has the authority to define "authorized representative". However, as it stands, it could allow safety pros, HR pros, union reps, and potentially even third party safety consultants to participate in the facility walk-through. Since it allows the employees to authorize the representative, then they could authorize it to be a member of the safety committee or anyone else they deem beneficial to the situation (with limitations, of course).

I read over the proposal. I was literally raised in manufacturing. Both my parents were UAW members. As a kid I remember seeing my parents walking their respective picket lines. My father was a Steward and Chief Steward. In high school my father was not very literate so I remember him bringing home grievances for my mom or I to help him write. I was a UAW member while going to college. In college I majored in Labor Relations, Personnel, and Management. Post college, I was a "Company Man" by my parents definition and was a Supervisor to Plant Manager and a Personnel Manager in a large UAW Foundry. I worked on all steps of the grievance procedure as well as bargained labor contracts. I am an expert at "horse trading". That was the first 15 years of my corporate career.
The last 27 years of my career were in the same jobs but in non-union mfg environments. Frankly, in my opinion this environment is preferred but a harder way to manage people. I should write a book.
Regarding this item it is easy in a Union environment as far as employee representation during a OSHA or state audit. In my union days, when a MiOSHA inspector visited I just called the head of the Safety Committee who was one of our UAW members to accompany us on tours.
It was easy too in my later non-union corporate career as we had a policy that required us to have hourly employees from our Safety Team on OSHA Audits. Preferably those having expertise in the area the CHSO was investigating (we had several types of safety teams like Lockout).
However, in my consulting days, these smaller employees are not at all receptive to having their hourly employees on CHSO inspections!
So my question is, "How are non-represented employees suppose to exercise this supposed right?"
I do not see anything here that requires an employer to tell or inform employees they have this right. "How are the employees supposed to know, and how do they exercise this right?"