WASHINGTON (PAI) – Forcing more disclosure on union-busters – and how much money companies spend on them – and ordering companies to resume counting ergonomic injuries, are among the highlights of the Obama Labor Department’s proposed rules agenda for next year.

In electronic web chats, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and other officials emphasized the agency would once again go to bat for workers’ interests, not just with the rules proposals but with increased enforcement.  OSHA, for example, is hiring 100 more inspectors, she said.

There are “22 new regulatory items on the agenda,” Solis added, besides DOL’s emphasis on “green jobs, more reinforcement, protection of workers, and helping returning veterans receive employment assistance and job training.” Proposals include:

*Re-establishing a separate ergonomic job injury log column in OSHA reports, and ordering companies to report faithfully within it.  The now-departed anti-worker GOP Bush regime got the then-GOP Congress – in the very first law Bush signed in 2001 – to abolish a Labor Department rule designed to reduce ergonomic injuries.

Ergonomic injuries, also known as repetitive-motion injuries and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), are estimated to be up to one-third of all yearly job injuries.

Not satisfied with abolishing the ergonomic injury rule – which labor pushed for a decade through administrations of both parties – Bush ordered DOL to stop even counting MSDs.  Solis is reinstating the ergonomics count, but not the rule.

“This is not a prelude to a broader ergonomic standard.  We are simply putting the MSD column back on the OSHA log as was originally intended in the 2001 issuance of OSHA’s record keeping standard. MSDs continue to be a major problem for American workers, but at this time, OSHA has no plans for regulatory activity,” Solis said.

*Forcing more disclosure of union-busting.  “Under the Labor-Management Reporting Disclosure Act” – the 1959 GOP-passed Landrum-Griffin law –  “an employer must report an agreement with a consultant hired to persuade employees as to their collective bargaining rights,” Solis said.

“An exemption to these reporting requirements is the ‘advice’ exception.  It provides no report must be filed by reason of a consultant’s giving or agreeing to give advice to the employer.  The department believes the exemption may be overly broad because indirect efforts to persuade are considered ‘advice’ and not reportable under the current interpretation of the exemption,” she added.

In a separate on-line chat, Deputy Assistant Labor Secretary for Labor-Management Standards John Lund said “we will enforce” the law “with respect to all entities” it covers – including, though he did not explicitly say so, the union-busters.

Lund also said his office yanked back a Bush rule forcing further disclosures by teachers unions and other public sector unions.  “This matter has not been finally decided.  The issue is under consideration and will be the subject of an open and transparent rulemaking process.  At that time, we will welcome all comments,” he said.

While Solis didn’t mention it, the Obama administration also yanked back additional heavy reporting rules Bush planned to pile onto individual union officers and shop stewards.   Bush wanted to add those to his previous rules forcing unions to disclose line-item spending on everything from paychecks to paper clips.

* The Wage and Hour Division is hiring 250 new investigators and will concentrate on industries with high violation rates that “employ vulnerable workers,” Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink said in her on-line chat.  They include agriculture, restaurants, janitorial, construction and car washes, “among others,” she said.

Leppink told two questioners, including one from the Laborers, that her division is trying to make it easier for workers to report wage and hour violations, such as lack of overtime pay, underpayment of Davis-Bacon wages or the minimum wage.  “Many employees are fearful of losing their jobs in this economy and, thus, unlikely to file a complaint if they are cheated out of their wages,” the first questioner commented.

“The Wage and Hour Division does accept third-party complaints on Davis-Bacon and other acts, as long as the third party has sufficient information to indicate a probable violation and coverage under the act.  The third party complainant can call the local Wage and Hour office or our toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE.” Leppink replied.

Leppink also told questioner Margaret deMerteliere that DOL is “working on a new public service campaign, ‘We Can Help,’ to inform workers of their rights under wage and hour laws. We hope to roll this campaign out in early 2010..”

* A proposed rule ordering coal mines to cut miners’ exposure to breathing coal dust.  Breathing the dust causes “black lung” and other diseases.  The present rule, setting a limit of 2 milligrams of coal dust per cubic meter of air, was set in 1972, the Mine Safety and Health Administration said.  A 1995 federal study, which Bush never acted on, called for a lower limit and listed tougher enforcement actions.