At a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) questioned Ben Tresselt, President and Owner of Arborist Enterprises on behalf of the Tree Care Industry Association, about OSHA standards.
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00:00and I'll recognize myself first. First, Mr. Parson, if the Department of Labor were to move
00:07forward with establishing a heat standard, your written testimony calls for a performance-oriented
00:12approach to mitigate heat-related hazards. What are the benefits of that kind of approach versus
00:18the approach that the Bright Administration proposed under their heat standard? Thank you
00:23for the question. It really provides flexibility. A performance-oriented approach would tie
00:29specific standards to specific areas and help industry craft a solution that makes sense for
00:38where they are. And so an overall standard sets it up really to fail, and the record-keeping
00:45associated with it and the time taken to administer it would almost be impossible. So it's not a novel
00:52idea necessarily. For OSHA, most employers take great care in looking after heat exhaustion
01:00of their employees as it is. And so a real local performance-based approach makes a lot more
01:05sense. Well, I appreciate that. Again, I think we share the desire for worker safety and having
01:11standards in place to protect against heat-related hazards. But again, I think you correctly identified
01:17the lack of flexibility, the overzealous paperwork requirements that kind of bogged down this
01:23proposal and ultimately make it unworkable across the country.
01:26Mr. Tresselt, in your written testimony, you highlight the benefits of putting a federal tree
01:31care standard in place. Those benefits would likely extend to employers, employees, and even OSHA
01:37compliance and safety officers conducting inspections or helping with compliance assistance efforts. Can you
01:43further explain how creating a standard would be a win-win for everybody involved?
01:47Mr. Tresselt, thank you, Congressman, for the question. The standard, as you know, in our industry,
01:53it's very hazardous. We have a lot of things going on. We have many workplace problems. A standard would
01:58help unify that so that we can work in conjunction with our employees, our employers, and OSHA. So by unifying
02:08this standard, we would get rid of the patchwork that occurs right now. We don't really have a standard
02:13that addresses all of our concerns as far as what we see on a daily basis in safety. I know in my
02:20business, we have a lot of concerns because if we had an OSHA inspection, we might be called out on
02:25things that might not pertain to exactly what we're doing. And we might be doing something that's
02:30completely safe under the Z-133, but may not be a standard that's already in the OSHA rule. So unifying
02:37this would help us protect our workers. It would help employers have a guideline on how to help
02:42their workers. And we give all the citation or the, excuse me, the OSHA people a clear picture of
02:48what we're doing and judge us on that, not on a standard that wouldn't reflect what we actually do
02:53out in the workplace.
02:54Well, thank you for that. And it's a prime example of where I think we can improve worker safety
03:01and do it in partnership in conjunction with the feedback that we're getting from the industry.
03:06It's been a missed opportunity, I think, for a long time that administrations in the past have
03:11talked about it, ultimately been unsuccessful in doing that. And in the last administration,
03:15my opinion is they were, again, because of their overreach and focus on things that OSHA should not
03:20have been doing, they were missing the actual opportunity to protect and improve worker safety
03:25in an industry like yours. So thank you for that. Final question goes to Ms. Watson. Your background
03:31includes decades of experience with home builders. Can you speak to the elements of the Biden proposed
03:36heat rule that would have had a significant impact on the construction industry?
03:41Thank you for the question. Yes, the elements of that rule that would affect home building industry,
03:47residential construction, actually all construction, when you think about it,
03:50you've got to have a written heat plan. If you have 10 or more employees on the job site,
03:56most residential home builders do not have that many employees. Oftentimes, that is an industry that
04:03is filled with specialty trade, some contractors, and so they would not be their employees. So a small
04:11home builder might only have two or three or four people. So in theory, they would only need to have
04:17a verbal plan. But to show compliance and demonstrate compliance with all of the requirements in the
04:25proposed heat rule, they'd effectively have to have a written plan. Because otherwise, how can they
04:29demonstrate to OSHA that they've analyzed all the job site hazards for those workers, that they've trained
04:36them on heat, and all the 16 elements in the training requirements, that they've done the emergency
04:41response, that everybody knows what the phone numbers are to summon emergency medical services. All of those
04:46things can be extremely burdensome. And then the fact that they would have to, per the regulation,
04:52post it at the job site. And if they don't have to have a written plan per the proposed regulation,
04:58how are they going to post something that isn't required to be written?
05:06And appreciate your feedback there. Housing affordability is a critically important issue for
05:11so many people all across the country. And we hear time and time again, that one of the things impeding
05:18home building is the amount of regulations, just the pile of regulations that make it difficult for them to operate.