ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL LEADS COALITION DEFENDING OSHA’S AUTHORITY TO PROTECT WORKERS

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul led a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in Allstates Refractory Contractors, LLC v. Walsh, defending the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) authority to establish and enforce rules protecting worker safety across the United States.

The case concerns an Ohio-based company’s argument that section 6(b) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act – which authorizes the secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor to promulgate occupational safety and health standards that govern U.S. workplaces – is unconstitutional because it violates the federal nondelegation doctrine. If the company were successful in its suit, OSHA would not be able to establish or enforce any safety standards – including the rules that require companies to take basic safeguards to prevent worker falls and those that protect workers from the hazards posed by complex and dangerous machines.

“For decades, workplace safety standards have prevented injuries and deaths at job sites in Illinois and across America by holding employers accountable for workplace conditions,” Raoul said. “Eliminating OSHA’s authority to establish and enforce these vital safety protections would lead to dramatic increases in preventable injuries and deaths. We can’t turn our back on workers and their rights.”

Raoul’s brief explains that the challenged standards have had a substantial effect on workplace safety since OSHA was created in the early 1970s. At that time, an average of 38 workers were killed on the job in the U.S. every day. With workplaces more than twice as large today, that figure has dropped by almost two-thirds. This decrease, Raoul and the coalition explain, highlights the effectiveness of workplace safety standards. Raoul and the coalition also argue that their own efforts to protect workers from workplace hazards are made possible by having a strong federal partner in OSHA, which invests extraordinary time and energy to establish safety standards for U.S. employers.

The brief builds on Attorney General Raoul’s efforts to advocate for workers in Illinois and across the nation. In 2020, Raoul filed two lawsuits challenging U.S. Department of Labor rules that unlawfully altered protections for tipped workers and eliminated key protections for workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In 2022, Raoul successfully led a multistate coalition filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting transportation workers’ rights. Also in 2022, Raoul filed multiple amicus briefs in state courts in support of Illinois workers’ rights under state law and led coalitions of attorneys general in supporting the federal government’s decision to increase the minimum wage for certain federal contractors.

Joining Raoul in the brief are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington.