President Richard Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) into law in 1970, giving American employees workplace protections that have helped reduce fatalities, injuries and illnesses and improve safety conditions.
But OSHA granting millions of American workers the right to safe conditions while on the job, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appeared ready to challenge OSHA’s existence.
According to the Business Insider on Microsoft Star, the Court considered the case of Allstates Refractory Contractors vs. Julie A. Su, Acting Secretary of Labor, in which the Ohio-based general contractors argued that OSHA is unconstitutional.
The Court ultimately decided not to take the case, but Thomas dissented from that decision, writing, “Congress purported to empower an administrative agency to impose whatever workplace-safety standards it deems appropriate. That power extends to virtually every business in the United States.”
OSHA’s constitutionality was previously upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit last year, the article says.
OSHA requires that employers provide their employees with working conditions that are free of dangers, the agency’s website says.
Dave Lubach is executive editor of the facility market.
