Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

Volume

43

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has given workplace health a higher profile, perhaps its highest since passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act). Increased visibility and public support are based on national awareness of how frontline essential (FE) workers risked their health and lives to protect fellow Americans and preserve economic stability. That said, the greater attentiveness to workplace health risks, and the heroism of FE workers, has been accompanied by what is at best a limited role for employee voice and participation in improving workplace protections. In a larger context, while unions have been heavily involved from the start in OSH Act standard setting, and have had positive enforcement effects on certain outcomes targeted by regulators, the overall record of accomplishment has been disappointing. Moreover, developments in Congress since 1970 reflect a persistent decline in workers’ ability to influence occupational safety-and-health policy. This Article reviews the status of employee voice on workplace health in the United States, focusing on successes and failures during the pandemic as well as in a broader setting. It then suggests some possible ways forward, based in part on a new structural approach and also on modification of existing labor law provisions.

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