Punching In: Washington Talking Workplace Safety, Labor Issues

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

Workplace Safety Week in Washington | Tax Break for Gig Workers

Tre’Vaughn Howard: Capitol Hill has been talking workplace safety.

This week the Senate’s labor panel considers President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency charged with overseeing mine safety. That comes on the heels of a debate in the House over reforms for the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Wayne Palmer, who was principal deputy assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health during Trump’s first term, was nominated to lead the US Mine Safety and Health Administration. If confirmed by the Senate, Palmer would play a significant role in MSHA’s approach to the challenged silica rule as well as balancing the push for federal workforce cuts while maintaining guaranteed protections for workers.

House Republicans recently talked about altering the Biden-era proposal on workplace heat stress protections to a more performance-based approach.

Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), head of the Education and Workforce subcommittee on workforce protections, questioned Jake Parson, president of CRH Americas Materials Northeast Division, on the benefits of that shift.

“It really provides flexibility, a performance-oriented approach would tie specific standards to specific areas, and help industry craft a solution that makes sense for where they are,” said Parson.

A decision by the Trump Administration to install workplace heat stress protections this year isn’t off the table. House Republicans’ receptiveness to a heat proposal is a stark contrast from their previous wishes to have it completely withdrawn or rescinded.

Industries that are likely to be affected, such as construction and warehousing, are also pressuring OSHA to move forward on the proposed heat rule rather than leave it in the hands of the next Democratic administration.

Lawmakers also narrowed in on the impacts of workforce cuts to the federal agency responsible for researching work-related injuries, a challenged rule on who can join safety inspectors, and the need for a tree care industry safety standard.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), ranking member of the subcommittee, said that cuts at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health will impact the educational research center in her district.

The OSH Act requires NIOSH to provide an adequate supply of qualified personnel to implement it, and as a result, the agency funds 18 education and research centers to assist in the pipeline.

“If we lose this pipeline, if we lose these people, we will have a major shortage of health and safety professionals in this country,” said Jordan Barab, the former deputy assistant secretary for OSHA in the Obama administration.

Barab noted that companies will ultimately pay a higher price resulting from those shortages.

Labor issues are heating up on Capitol Hill

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Rebecca Rainey: Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. drivers are catching a ride on Republicans’ tax bill.

Major gig-economy companies secured a provision to ensure independent contractors would be eligible for a potential tax break on tip earnings in the GOP tax bill, which could get a House vote soon.

Language approved out of the House Ways and Means Committee last week included a provision to exempt tips from income taxes, delivering on one of Trump’s campaign promises.

Tech companies, including Uber and DoorDash Inc., which rely on independent contractors to staff their fleets, had spent weeks pushing Congress to tweak the language in the tax bill so that the provision exempting tips from income tax would also apply to contractors.

As originally written, Republican’s “No Tax on Tips” proposal only applied to cash tips reported by individuals on an annual tax form supplied to their employer.

But because contractors aren’t employees and don’t file these forms, this language meant gig-economy and other contract workers weren’t eligible for the tax break.

In the labor and employment landscape, this issue is nothing new. Whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in the space today.

Democrats, unions, and worker advocates argue that most workers should be treated as employees who are protected under wage and hour and collective bargaining law, and that employers are avoiding liability by treating their workers as independent contractors. But businesses and some independent contractors say they enjoy the flexibility provided by these arrangements, and that these workers don’t want to be classified as employees.

Nevertheless, after extensive lobbying from DoorDash and Uber, the text of the no-tax on tips provision that ultimately ended up in the tax bill was broader, expanding the forms or statements that could be used to show tipped income and defining eligible tips as “any cash tip received by an individual in an occupation which traditionally and customarily received tips.”

DoorDash mobilized more than 40,000 drivers on its platform to send letters to lawmakers over the bill, a network the company says it will use to lobby on other issues impacting its workers in the future.

“Dashers, the independent contractors who deliver on the DoorDash platform, highly value the independence and flexibility that dashing provides,” DoorDash leadership wrote in a letter to Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith last week. “’No Tax On Tips’ would allow them to take home even more pay. “

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.