On the first day of the legislative session, Sen. Doug Berger, a Youngsville Democrat, introduced a bill to take enforcement of occupational safety and health laws from the commissioner of labor and hand it over to the Employment Security Commission. It will come as no surprise that the labor commissioner is Cherie Berry, one of two Republicans on the Council of State. Berger, who has support from several key Democratic legislators, says the commissioner is not doing a good job of enforcing the laws. The state is responsible for enforcing federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules. A Charlotte Observer investigation had found that North Carolina's fines for workplace violations are much lower than other states'. But this bill is more about partisan politics than it is about worker safety. Make a note that Berger had run against and been defeated by Berry.
The commissioner of labor is a constitutional officer. The General Assembly can't eliminate the position without a constitutional amendment, but it can emasculate the powers of the office. Legislators are good at that. When a Republican was elected lieutenant governor in the 1980s, legislators stripped the lieutenant governor of nearly all powers except the one specified in the constitution, to preside over the state Senate. Another Council of State member, the superintendent of public instruction, has been reduced to a figurehead, but a figurehead elected statewide.
Shifting OSHA responsibility to ESC sounds like a disaster in the making, especially at this time, when ESC is so overworked by the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who are unemployed and applying for jobless benefits. ESC needs to concentrate its resources on providing services to the unemployed and helping them find jobs. That's a huge responsibility these days.
While legislative leaders toy with Council of State members' authority, the state faces a $2 billion or larger deficit. You'd think legislators would be hard at work trying to find places to cut spending. That should be top priority. In the long term, legislators might want to seriously consider changes to the way the government is organized. The state could save money by reducing the number of departments and divisions, by electing fewer executives (most states appoint heads of agriculture, state, labor, education, insurance, etc.) and by merging redundant programs (such as Smart Start and More at Four). Some of these changes would require a constitutional amendment, but the public, shown the cost savings available and the potential for greater efficiency, would go for it.
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2 comments:
....this has shades of the tire bidding process White's has gone through. All politics.
The Beger dude should be ashamed of himself. How can a person who thinks and acts like this wake up in the am and look himself in the mirror.
The topper is your reference to Berry has defeated Berger for the Ins Commiss position. His sour grapes affect us all. There should be a law against this, and what happened to the watered down bidding process for tires.
Sorry a$$ politicians.
The sad thing about this is the Charlotte Observer series was extremely flawed, but everyone is taking it as gospel. Fatalities may have gone up this year, but what about the past SEVERAL years when they have gone down? Doesn't count anymore? Or what about North Carolina's injury and illness rate that has been at an all-time low for years?? Use a little common sense legislators!
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