Chapter 1017 Oregon Laws 1999

Session Law

AN ACT

HB 2830

Relating to occupational safety; creating new provisions; and amending ORS 654.003, 654.035, 654.067 and 654.071.

Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:

SECTION 1. ORS 654.003 is amended to read:

654.003. The purpose of the Oregon Safe Employment Act is to assure as far as possible safe and healthful working conditions for every working man and woman in Oregon, to preserve our human resources and to reduce the substantial burden, in terms of lost production, wage loss, medical expenses, disability compensation payments and human suffering, [which] that is created by occupational injury and disease. To accomplish this purpose the Legislative Assembly intends to provide a procedure [which] that will:

(1) Encourage employers and employees to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards and to institute new programs and improve existing programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions.

(2) Establish a coordinated program of worker and employer education, health and safety consultative services, demonstration projects and research to assist workers and their employers in preventing occupational injury and disease, whatever the cause.

(3) Authorize the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services and the designees of the director to set reasonable, mandatory, occupational safety and health standards for all employments and places of employment.

(4) Provide an effective program, under the director [of the Department of Consumer and Business Services], to enforce all laws, regulations, rules and standards adopted for the protection of the life, safety and health of employees, and in so doing, predominantly prioritize inspections of places of employment to first focus enforcement activities upon places of employment that the director reasonably believes to be the most unsafe.

(5) Establish appropriate reporting and research procedures [which] that will help achieve the objectives of the Oregon Safe Employment Act, identify occupational hazards and unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, and describe the nature of the occupational safety and health problem.

(6) Assure that Oregon assumes fullest responsibility, in accord with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-596), for the development, administration and enforcement of safety and health laws and standards.

SECTION 2. ORS 654.035 is amended to read:

654.035. The Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services may, by general or special orders, or by regulations, rules, codes or otherwise:

(1) Declare and prescribe what devices, safeguards or other means of protection and what methods, processes or work practices are well adapted to render every employment and place of employment safe and healthful.

(2) Fix reasonable standards and prescribe and enforce reasonable orders for the adoption, installation, use and maintenance of devices, safeguards and other means of protection, and of methods, processes and work practices, including, but not limited to, work practices qualifications for equipment, materials and activities requiring special competence, to be as nearly uniform as possible, as may be necessary to carry out all laws relative to the protection of the life, safety and health of employees.

(3) Fix and order such reasonable standards for the construction, repair and maintenance of places of employment and equipment as shall render them safe and healthful.

(4) Fix standards for routine, periodic or area inspections of places of employment [which] that are reasonably necessary in order to determine that all occupational safety and health laws and the regulations, rules and standards promulgated thereunder are being complied with. Except for complaint inspections, follow-up inspections, imminent danger inspections, referral inspections and inspections to determine the cause of an occupational death, injury or illness, all inspections shall be based on written neutral administrative standards. The standards shall include a prioritized scheduling system for inspections that predominantly focuses enforcement activities upon places of employment that the director reasonably believes to be the most unsafe. The standards shall be accessible to employers under ORS 192.410 to 192.505 for at least 36 months from the last date the standards are in effect. The director shall notify in writing each employer whose accepted disabling claims rate is above the state average for its standard industrial classification and each employer whose industry is rated by the director as one of the most unsafe industries in the state of the increased likelihood of inspection of their places of employment and of the availability of consultative services. The director may by rule offer incentives to employers that elect consultative services before an inspection is conducted. Nothing in this subsection prevents the director from conducting a random inspection of a place of employment so long as the inspection is scheduled and conducted pursuant to written neutral administrative standards.

(5) Require the performance of any other act which the protection of the life, safety and health of employees in employments and places of employment may demand.

SECTION 3. ORS 654.067 is amended to read:

654.067. (1) In order to carry out the purposes of ORS 654.001 to 654.295 and 654.750 to 654.780, the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, upon presenting appropriate credentials to the owner, employer or agent in charge, is authorized:

(a) To enter without delay and at reasonable times any place of employment; and

(b) To inspect and investigate during regular working hours and at other reasonable times, and within reasonable limits and in a reasonable manner, any such place of employment and all pertinent conditions, structures, machines, apparatus, devices, equipment and materials therein, and to question privately the owner, employer, agents or employees.

(2) No person shall give an owner, employer, agent or employee advance notice of any inspection to be conducted under ORS 654.001 to 654.295 and 654.750 to 654.780 of any place of employment without authority from the director.

(3) Except in the case of an emergency, or of a place of employment open to the public, if the director is denied access to any place of employment for the purpose of an inspection or investigation, such inspection or investigation shall not be conducted without an inspection warrant obtained pursuant to ORS 654.202 to 654.216, or without such other authority as a court may grant in an appropriate civil proceeding. Nothing contained herein, however, is intended to affect the validity of a constitutionally authorized inspection conducted without an inspection warrant.

(4) A representative of the employer and a representative authorized by the employees of the employer shall be given an opportunity to accompany the director during the inspection of any place of employment for the purpose of aiding such inspection. [Where] When there is no employee representative, or the employee representative is not an employee of the employer, the director should consult with a reasonable number of employees concerning matters of safety and health in the place of employment.

(5) The representative of the employer may, at the employer's option, be an attorney retained by the employer.

SECTION 4. ORS 654.071 is amended to read:

654.071. (1) If the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services or an authorized representative of the director has reason to believe, after inspection or investigation of a place of employment, that an employer has violated any state occupational safety or health law, regulation, standard, rule or order, the director or the authorized representative shall with reasonable promptness issue to such employer a citation, and notice of proposed civil penalty, if any, to be assessed under this chapter, and fix a reasonable time for correction of the alleged violation.

(2) Each citation and notice required by subsection (1) of this section shall be in writing, shall be mailed to or served upon the employer or a registered agent of the director, and shall contain:

(a) The date and place of the alleged violation;

(b) A plain statement of the facts upon which the citation is based;

(c) A reference to the law, regulation, rule, standard or order relied upon;

(d) The amount, if any, of the proposed civil penalty;

(e) The time, if any, fixed for the correction of the alleged violation;

(f) Notice of the employer's right to contest the citation, the proposed civil penalty and the period of time fixed for correction of the alleged violation; and

(g) Notice of any affected employee's right to contest the period of time fixed for correction of the alleged violation.

(3) No citation or notice of proposed civil penalty may be issued under this section after the expiration of 180 days following the [director's knowledge of the occurrence of a violation] start of the inspection or investigation, but this shall not prevent the issuance, at any time, of an order to correct that violation or the issuance of a citation for a subsequent violation.

(4) If the director has reason to believe that an employer has failed to correct a violation within the period of time fixed for correction, or within the time fixed in a subsequent order granting an extension of time to correct the violation, the director shall consider such failure as a separate and continuing violation and shall issue a citation and notice of proposed civil penalty, if any, to be assessed pursuant to ORS 654.086 (1)(d).

(5) The director may prescribe procedures for the issuance of a notice in lieu of citation to inform an employer and employees of a minimal violation which has no direct or immediate relationship to occupational safety or health.

(6) Each citation and notice, or copies thereof, issued under ORS 654.001 to 654.295 and 654.750 to 654.780 shall be posted by the employer, immediately upon receipt, in a conspicuous manner in a sufficient number of locations in the place or places of employment to reasonably inform employees of such citation and notice.

(7) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the director or authorized representative of the director shall deliver to the operator of a farm labor camp a copy of any notice, evaluation report or citation resulting from the inspection.

SECTION 5. The amendments to ORS 654.003, 654.035, 654.067 and 654.071 by sections 1 to 4 of this 1999 Act apply only to inspections or investigations started on or after the effective date of this 1999 Act.

Approved by the Governor August 20, 1999

Filed in the office of the Secretary of State August 23, 1999

Effective date October 23, 1999

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