8 Members of Congress protest OSHA handling of PPE

OSHA has drawn the ire of eight members of Congress who are objecting to what they say was “improper rulemaking” in requiring flame-resistant clothing to be worn in almost all servicing of oil and gas wells.

The issue goes back to March of 2010 when OSHA issued a memorandum which it said was intended clarify its policy about the use of personal protective equipment in oil and gas operations.

In June of this year, an administrative law judge from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission overturned a PPE citation to Petro Hunt LLC for failure to wear flame resistant clothing. Judge Patrick B. Augustine said that the memorandum constituted a new standard and that OSHA engaged in “improper rulemaking under the aegis of an enforcement standard.”

According to the eight Congresspeople, OSHA told an oil and gas association that it did not intend to appeal the decision on the citation, but that it did not agree that it was engaging in improper rulemaking.

OSHA continues to issue citations in keeping with the policy memo, the congresspeople said in a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis dated Oct. 24, 2012.

The letter said that OSHA should have gone through proper rulemaking procedures rather than just issuing a memo. The letter asked Solis to do one of three things:

• Appeal the ruling of the administrative law judge so the issue can be resolved.
• Complete a formal rulemaking on the issue
• Rescind the memorandum.

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