House Lawmakers Introduce Warehouse Worker Protection Act

On June 5, U.S. Reps. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) introduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives with the co-sponsorship of three Republicans and 22 Democrats.

As Connecting the Dots readers may recall, after this bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate, the Metals Service Center Institute and more than 60 other organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Wholesalers, sent a letter to all members of the U.S. Congress asking that they oppose the legislation. “The bill would establish a highly burdensome system to micromanage the warehousing and distribution industry, which would undermine the efficiency of this vital part of American supply chains,” MSCI and its allies argued. Read the full letter here.

The Coalition for Workplace Safety also opposes the legislation. Read that organization’s statement here.

The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would resurrect the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s long-discarded ergonomics standard. When this regulation was first promulgated a quarter century ago, lawmakers found it to be so unworkable that a strong bipartisan majority of Congress voted to void the rule. The WWPA also would speed up the timeline for abatement for willful or repeat violations. A

dditionally, employers who receive a willful or repeat violation citation — for any violation, not just those covered by this bill — would be required to abate the alleged hazard before they have exhausted their ability to challenge the citation. (Current law allows employers to pursue their challenges as far as they can before needing to abate an alleged hazard.)

Stay tuned to Connecting the Dots as this bill moves forward in the legislative process.