New Jersey Senator Introduces Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act

Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, it is altogether fitting and appropriate to commemorate Workers' Memorial Day this year by introducing the ``Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act of 2005.' I am very pleased to join my colleague from New Jersey, Senator JON CORZINE, in introducing this bill aimed at saving workers lives. Senator CORZINE and I sponsored identical legislation in the 108th Congress. The bill would amend the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act in 3 simple ways. First, it would stiffen sanctions for worker deaths caused by an employer's willful violations of basic safety standards. Under current law, the sanction is a mere misdemeanor which carries a fine of no more than $10,000 and a prison sentence of no more than 6 months. As the first librarian to become a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I can vouch for the fact that some local jurisdictions seek harsher penalties for failure to return a library book.

Holding certain local union officials criminally liable for minor instances of alleged record falsification versus handing employers who commit corporate manslaughter an automatic ``get out of jail free' pass is a real statement of values and priorities. We hear a great deal fromthis Republican Administration about the importance of affirming a ``culture of life.' Well, American workers deserve a ``culture' of workplace safety that ensures they will live to go home at night and return to their jobs the following morning. When Congressman TOM DELAY was asked by an Associated Press (AP) reporter last year about the ``Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act,' he replied: ``The worst thing you could do--telling a small business person that they could go to prison over an OSHA violation.' But such ridicule and exaggeration offends any surviving relative of a victim of corporate manslaughter.

Every year, between 5000 and 6000 workers are killed-on-the-job, often in gruesome circumstances due to inexcusable safety violations. This bill is aimed at holding such grossly negligent employers accountable. It will not result in either wanton or reckless prosecutions of hapless employers. My bill is NOT a radical departure from current law by any stretch of the imagination. This bill simply corrects a glaring oversight in federal law and policy: the inability to pursue a felony conviction of an employer who willfully causes the deaths of workers. It is a moderate adjustment that is long overdue.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I would like to note for the record that the ``Wrongful Workplace Accountability Act of 2005' is included in its entirety in a broader bill I am also introducing today, the ``Protecting America's Workers Act.' I urge my colleagues to respect the lives of all American workers and ask them to join me in sponsoring both these bills. Millions of hard-working Americans and their families deserve nothing less than such essential protection.