The Department of Labor's mission is to protect and promote the well-being of workers and retirees as well as those who are seeking new or better jobs. The 180 labor laws the Department is charged with administering form a framework that defines what the Department of Labor (DOL) must do to carry out its mission. This framework is further delineated by the implementing regulations issued by the Department. In carrying out its mission, DOL has an impact on many of the most important aspects of workers' lives--their health and safety; their right to a workplace without discrimination; their ability to take job-protected time off to care for family members in times of family or medical crisis; and their desire for job-training so they can meet the challenges of a changing economy. Also of great importance to workers are the Department's efforts to protect workers' rights to unemployment insurance and to provide job market information should they lose their jobs; to secure workers' overtime pay when they work long hours; to assure their right to a minimum wage; and to guard their hard-earned pensions and benefits.
Not only is the Department's mission broad, but its coverage is vast and its constituency varied. Over 130 million current and former employees, and millions of first-time job applicants and retirees, come under the provisions of one or more of the laws and regulations administered by the Department. These workers are a very diverse group--they range from an 18-year-old cashier in need of job training to a 40-year-old laid-off engineer in need of job market information--and from a 25-year-old seamstress who wants her overtime pay to a 65-year-old janitor who wants to be sure his retirement pay is safe. In addition, these workers perform their jobs in almost 7 million establishments across the country. These workplaces range from small retail stores to large international software corporations--from local weekly newspapers to tractor assembly lines--and from small county libraries to large interstate construction companies. Faced with the enormous size, diversity and complexity of workers' and employers' needs and circumstances, the Department has begun to find new and better ways to administer and enforce labor laws--it is traveling along a new road, under new rules, with new partners.
As the Department began its journey down this road, it established new guiding principles for the development of its rules. First, new rules must be both effective and must minimize any burdens on the regulated community. In doing so, DOL recognized that new and different regulatory approaches may need to be considered. In fact, in some cases, different regulatory approaches may be used to solve the same problem to allow for the diversity in DOL's constituencies. Second, the rules must be easily understood, sensible and consistent, and they must be reviewed on a periodic basis to ensure that they continue to be effective and are up-to-date. And third, the Department's constituencies--workers, employers, labor unions, associations, educational institutions, and State and local governments--must not only be partners in this journey but must participate in writing the new rules.
This regulatory plan is a reflection of the Department's commitment to these principles, which will help DOL better fulfill its mission to protect and promote the well-being of workers, job applicants, and retirees. The Department will use these principles in promulgating new regulations or in revising old ones. When writing or revising rules, DOL will explore new approaches that achieve our regulatory goals at lower costs and with greater flexibility for the regulated community; it will produce consistent and easy-to-understand rules; and it will make sure that those who are protected by the new rules or must abide by them have participated in the rulemaking process and that they have been provided timely, user-friendly compliance assistance materials.
DOL's 1996 regulatory plan highlights the Department's 23 most important significant regulations from five of our major regulatory agencies: Employment Standards Administration (ESA), Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) and Employment and Training Administration (ETA). The entries in The Regulatory Plan were carefully selected as the most important; that is, they are essential to the Department's mission to improve worker protections and job services. And, in keeping with the Department's commitment to our regulatory principles, these proposals will be designed in conjunction with our partners so that they are effective, consistent, sensible, and understandable.
Regulatory Priorities
DOL has always recognized that, over time, changes in the workplace such as new business practices, improved or safer technologies, or new hazards may render existing rules ineffective or demand the creation of new ones. The following are the DOL agencies' responses to the most important of these workplace changes.
ESA's Wage and Hour Division is responsible for implementing and enforcing several statutes establishing minimum labor standards that protect the Nation's work force, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, and certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. These labor standards include requirements for payment of minimum wages and overtime pay, protections for working youth under child labor standards, job protections for employees who take leave for certain family or medical reasons, and minimum working conditions for agricultural workers. The regulatory activities required to implement these statutory responsibilities represent a very important aspect of the Division's work, the results of which affect over 100 million employees in the work force. When developing regulatory proposals, the Division's focus is on assuring fair, safe and healthful workplaces for the Nation's workers, while at the same time minimizing burdens on the regulated community.
The particular regulations selected for inclusion in this Plan affect a wide array of workers and workplaces. Under the FLSA, the Wage and Hour Division is continuing its comprehensive review of the regulatory criteria applicable to child labor and to the minimum wage and overtime exemption for ``executive,'' ``administrative,'' ``professional,'' and ``outside sales employees.'' Other regulatory actions include clarifying the criteria to be followed in determining whether a joint employment relationship exists in the employment of migrant and seasonal farm workers under MSPA, and defining the circumstances in which ``helpers'' may be used on federally funded and assisted construction contracts subject to the Davis-Bacon Act.
ESA's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is charged with enforcing the requirements of Executive Order 11246, selected provisions of the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA), and section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Regulations issued under the Executive order and the two Acts cover nondiscrimination and affirmative action obligations for Federal contractors and subcontractors. OFCCP's regulatory plan entry, the proposed amendments to regulations implementing Executive Order 11246, will streamline and clarify the regulatory language and reduce paperwork requirements of covered Federal contractors while ensuring that their obligations under the Executive order and the two Acts are met. The VEVRAA proposal (an Agenda Item) will provide parallel changes conforming the VEVRAA regulations to the May 1, 1996, final rule on section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The mission of the Mine Safety and Health Administration is to achieve the goal of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977: Making the first priority and concern of all in the mining industry the health and safety of its most precious resource--the miner. MSHA is committed to providing the Nation's miners a safer and healthier workplace. Despite MSHA's past efforts, miners face safety and health hazards daily at levels unknown in most other professions. Government intervention alone cannot eliminate occupational deaths, injuries, and illnesses in mining. Effective regulation can best be accomplished through the combined commitment of miners, mine operators, and the Government to prevent accidents and illnesses. To facilitate this commitment, MSHA's regulatory plan concentrates on improving existing safety and health standards and addressing technological advances in mining.
Four significant regulatory actions exemplify MSHA's commitment to improving workplace safety and health for miners. The first action addresses the need to update the Agency's existing standard for exposure to noise. The proposed noise rule would reexamine the level of protection provided by existing standards. Many miners are currently exposed to the maximum noise levels currently permitted and, as a result, may be suffering hearing impairments.
The introduction of diesel-powered equipment in underground coal mines over the past decade has created new hazards associated with the presence of a potential ignition source and diesel fuel in an environment that may contain methane gas. In addition, the exhaust from such equipment can expose miners to hazardous airborne contaminants. To assure that diesel-powered equipment does not adversely affect the safety or health of miners, MSHA plans to issue a final rule that includes criteria for the approval of such equipment, safety standards for the storage and distribution of diesel fuel, training requirements for diesel mechanics, and requirements for monitoring miners' exposure to diesel exhaust.
To complement the diesel equipment standard, MSHA intends to issue a separate proposed rule for diesel particulate to reduce the potential health hazards associated with particulate in the exhaust emitted by diesel-powered equipment in the mining environment.
While there have been significant reductions in levels of respirable coal mine dust over the years, some miners exposed to respirable coal mine dust at certain mine operations continue to develop coal workers' pneumoconiosis--''black lung''_and silicosis. In February 1996, MSHA convened a Federal advisory committee to take a broad look at ways to eliminate black lung and silicosis among coal miners. The committee is charged with assessing the adequacy of MSHA's current program and standards to control respirable dust in underground and surface coal mines.
In the past 2 years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has changed its fundamental mode of operation from one of command and control to one that provides employers with a real choice between a partnership with OSHA and a traditional enforcement relationship. In the regulatory arena, this means that OSHA has changed its regulatory approach to enable the Agency, for the first time, to establish and act on clear and sensible priorities; emphasize consensus-based approaches to rulemaking; focus on developing a basic safety and health programs rule; and eliminate out-of-date, confusing, or duplicative rules from the books. Despite the change in OSHA's methods, OSHA's mission remains as important as it was on the day President Nixon signed the OSH Act into law in 1970: Saving the lives and improving the safety and health of America's working men and women.
Some of OSHA's standards, particularly those adopted wholesale from national consensus standards in 1971, have become technologically obsolete, while others are written in highly detailed, specification-driven language that limits compliance flexibility. To address these problems, OSHA has launched a series of initiatives aimed at streamlining and rationalizing the Agency's regulations and ensuring that all future OSHA rules will pass plain language and common sense tests. In addition, the Agency is actively soliciting input from stakeholders--business, labor, small employers, professional associations, and affected government entities--as it moves forward on these rulemaking initiatives. The OSHA rules featured in the 1996 Regulatory Plan reflect the rulemaking approach that is being followed by ``the new OSHA.'' For example, the Agency is carefully reviewing the massive docket resulting from months of public hearings and comments on one of the Agency's highest priorities, a standard for Indoor Air Quality, and staff will continue to work on this project over the next year. The size of the docket and the complexity of the issues raised by the Indoor Air rulemaking, however, have necessitated a delay in the expected promulgation date, as indicated in the regulatory agenda. Regulatory action to address the serious risks posed to America's workers by environmental tobacco smoke and unhealthful indoor air is now planned for FY 1997.
One of the most important regulatory initiatives ever undertaken by OSHA--development of a safety and health programs rule_is the centerpiece of the Agency's current regulatory plan. This standard will ensure that employers in all industries treat worker protection as a fundamental goal of their business and will help employers identify job-related hazards in the workplace, correct those so identified, and prevent others from occurring. Evidence of the effectiveness of safety and health programs in achieving OSHA's ultimate goal--the prevention of deaths, injuries, and illnesses on the job--is widespread and growing daily, as more and more companies report that their accident rates and their workers' compensation costs have fallen after the implementation of such programs. For the past year, OSHA has been engaging in a series of stakeholder meetings designed to identify ways of meeting the small business community's need for a strong but simple rule and of recognizing existing safety and health programs that are demonstrably effective. The Department believes that, by actively involving both employers and employees in the implementation of safety and health programs, this standard will help to produce the high-performance workplaces of tomorrow.
In summary, OSHA's new regulatory strategy is designed to achieve a body of standards that will make sense to ordinary people and protect the safety and health of the U.S. workforce.
The Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) protects the integrity of pensions, health plans, and other employee benefits for over 150 million workers, retirees, and dependents. PWBA's mission is to protect participants and beneficiaries in employment-based benefit plans by deterring and correcting violations of the law, by developing policies and laws that simplify compliance and encourage the growth and preservation of employment-based benefits, by assisting plan officials in understanding the requirements of the law, and by ensuring that employees receive the information they need to protect and secure their benefit rights.
PWBA's regulatory priorities for 1997 will build on legislative efforts to simplify and facilitate compliance with benefit laws, improve pension and welfare plan coverage, and protect the benefits of American workers. PWBA's top regulatory priorities will implement the disclosure, portability, access, and renewability provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the portions of the pension simplification provisions of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, for which the Department of Labor has responsibility.
With the enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), American workers will for the first time be guaranteed increased portability of health care coverage through restrictions on preexisting condition limitations and protection from discrimination in health care coverage on the basis of health status. PWBA's most significant regulatory activities will include the timely and meaningful implementation of these important worker protections, in conjunction with the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services. Related significant regulatory activities include PWBA's implementation of important statutory changes to ERISA's disclosure provisions that ensure improved and timely disclosure of health plan information to participants and beneficiaries.
Also among PWBA's top priorities, in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, is the release for public comment of simplified annual return/report forms (the Form 5500 Series) for all employee benefit plans subject to ERISA's annual reporting requirements.
Reinvention
In accord with its regulatory principles, the Department has an on-going effort to reinvent its regulations. DOL has already eliminated over 1,100 pages of out-of-date or obsolete rules in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). DOL is also well on its way to reinventing those rules which are difficult to enforce or understand. Almost 500 CFR pages have been revised (as notices of proposed rulemaking or final rules). This regulatory plan reaffirms the Department's commitment to make its rules easier to understand and less burdensome while increasing their effectiveness.
ESA's OFCCP reinvention efforts include revisions to the Executive Order 11246 regulations, which will reduce paperwork burdens, eliminate unnecessary provisions, and simplify and clarify the regulations while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the contract compliance program. The Wage and Hour Division's child labor initiative is intended, in part, to eliminate unnecessary overlap and duplication in rules, provide full opportunity for input from the regulated community, and ensure that regulatory standards are easily understood and have reasonable compliance standards consistent with the underlying statute they implement.
MSHA is continuing work on the noise and longwall rulemakings, two reinvention initiatives included in last year's regulatory plan. Occupationally induced hearing loss is a serious problem in the Nation's mining communities. MSHA estimates that almost 50,000 current miners are expected to incur an impairment of their hearing as a result of their work during their working lifetimes. MSHA will be proposing a rule to reinvent how mining industry resources are utilized to address this serious health problem. Consideration will be given to eliminating existing requirements that have not been proven to be effective and replacing them with practices that have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing the risk of hearing loss. Emphasis will be placed on performance-oriented requirements to permit mine operators the flexibility to address this problem in the context of varying mine environments. The Agency is planning to provide compliance assistance to mine operators, particularly small mine operators, to facilitate the implementation of this important new health standard.
Advanced longwall mining systems that employ high-voltage electrical circuits have resulted in significant production gains for many underground coal mines with no loss of safety--provided certain conditions are met. MSHA's electrical standards for underground coal mines currently prohibit high-voltage circuits in the area of the mine where coal is produced. As a result, mine operators have had to seek variances from MSHA to use high-voltage equipment. Over the past decade, MSHA has processed approximately 100 variances. MSHA intends to issue a final rule allowing the use of this type of equipment, reducing the burden on those mines that use this safe and highly productive method of mining coal.
The elimination and revision of outdated and restrictive regulations, most of which were adopted by OSHA nearly 25 years ago and have remained unchanged, is another important aspect of the new OSHA's way of regulating. Several of the entries in this year's regulatory plan, including ``Walking Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems,'' ``Steel Erection,'' and ``Revision of Certain Standards promulgated under section 6(a) of the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970,'' reflect the importance OSHA attaches to these projects. Finding and fixing confusing, hard-to-follow, and unnecessary regulations and streamlining and updating the Agency's excessively detailed and technologically obsolete standards will further OSHA's primary goal--the protection of worker safety and health--and make it easier and less burdensome for employers to comply.
In this fiscal year, one of OSHA's most dramatic regulatory initiatives--rewriting the Agency's detailed, specification-driven industry standards in plain language--will become a reality. In the next 12 months, OSHA intends to propose streamlined, modern versions of its safety rules for Access/Egress (called ``Exit Routes'' in its plain language version), Flammable/Combustible Liquids, Dip Tanks, and Spray Booths. Based on focus groups' input, stakeholder response to this initiative is expected to be overwhelmingly favorable, as employers and employees alike find that they can understand--and therefore comply with--the new OSHA's rules.
PWBA is working to simplify and improve the security of the private pension system through legislation and other regulatory reform efforts. For example, audit legislation has been proposed that will help PWBA detect serious problems with a plan's financial security in a timely manner and require that the Secretary of Labor be notified more promptly when there is evidence that a crime has occurred.
The Employment and Training Administration, as part of the reinvention effort, has undertaken a reengineering of the labor certification process for the permanent employment of aliens in the United States. The labor certification process has been criticized as being complicated, time-consuming, costly, and burdensome to employers. ETA's goals are to make changes and refinements in that process that will better serve customers, streamline the process, improve effectiveness, and save resources. The reengineering effort has been a collaborative undertaking of Federal and State staff who are involved in the administration of alien certification programs. The reengineering effort also has involved consultation throughout the process with sponsors, stakeholders, State partners, and outside interest groups to solicit ideas and suggestions for change.
Through these reengineering efforts, ETA has identified three major processes that will benefit from change: The permanent labor certification process; the process for determining prevailing wages; and the H1-B approval process. Modification of the prevailing wage determination process and the H1-B approval process has begun. Although changes are being made to the permanent labor certification process within the constraints of current law, major modifications must be held in abeyance until Congress has completed its deliberations regarding the need to make legislative changes to the program.