ISEA joined 11 other organizations in filing a January 30, 2023, amici curiae brief in support of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
(Arlington, Virginia – February 2, 2023) The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) filed an amici curiae brief January 30, 2023, along with 11 other safety- and health-related nonprofit organizations, supporting the position of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the appellate case brought against the agency by Allstates Refractory Contractors, LLC (Allstates), which claims OSHA’s safety regulations are unconstitutional.
“ISEA and our fellow amici support a robust federal OSHA to ensure safety and health for workers and their communities,” said ISEA President & CEO Cam Mackey. “We believe that Congress was in the right to have OSHA promulgate safety standards, and both the agency and its standards have been extremely successful in keeping the workforce safe. The entire nation has moved forward along with OSHA to make our workforce safe and productive.”
After the U.S. District Court ruled against Allstates, the company filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in an attempt to strip away OSHA’s power to issue safety standards. If successful, Allstates’ appeal would undermine decades of efforts to protect workers on the job, and undercut the goals and expertise of occupational safety and health employers and public interest associations like ISEA and the other organizations who filed the amici curiae brief.
In the findings and declaration of purpose and policy clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, as signed into law by President Nixon in 1970, Congress declared that its purpose was to “assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions.” [29 U.S.C. 651(b).] ISEA believes the Act provided clear, intelligible instructions to the U.S. Department of Labor to write regulations to achieve those ends.
ISEA and its fellow amici strongly believe that OSHA is critical to preventing job injuries and to ensuring safe and worksites, including the requirement of training and use of critical safety and protective equipment. OSHA’s long standing Congressional mandate to enact and enforce safety standards across workplaces creates an important minimum floor that, in conjunction with training, state efforts, and voluntary employer safety compliance programs, creates a culture of workplace safety and health in the United States.
Among the key points made in the legal brief, ISEA and its fellow amici stated that OSHA has played a critical role in reducing workplace injuries and deaths. Contrary to Allstates’ assertions, workers’ compensation systems are not a substitute for OSHA safety standards. And outside of the federally approved state OSHA plans, a patchwork of varying state regulations is unworkable.
A copy of the full amici curiae brief is available here.
About ISEA
Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) is the trade association in the U.S. for personal protective equipment and technologies. Its member companies are world leaders in the design, manufacture, testing and distribution of protective clothing and equipment used in factories, construction sites, hospitals and clinics, farms, schools, laboratories, emergency response and in the home. Since 1933, ISEA has set the standard for the personal protective equipment industry, supporting member companies united in the goal of protecting the health and safety of people worldwide.
Contact:
Nicole Randall
Director, Marketing & External Affairs
International Safety Equipment Association
Office: 703-525-1695 x12
Mobile: 202-330-2432
nrandall@safetyequipment.org
