Occupational Safety and Health Act Amendments

Occupational Safety and Health Act Amendments - Excludes from the coverage of the Occupational Health and Safety Act any farmer engaged in a contract with any person for the purpose of furnishing and operating farm machinery used in connection with farm activities. Requires safety and health rules proposed by the Secretary of Labor to be accompanied by a statement summarizing the economic impact on affected employers. States that no safety or health standard adopted shall require any employer to replace existing equipment or facilities before the normal useful life of that equipment or facility has expired unless failure to do so would result in a serious violation of the Act. Requires citations for violations of the Act to stipulate with particularity a suggested course or courses of action which if implemented would correct the violating condition or process. Provides for the suspension of all further proceedings concerning a citation pending final action on an application for variance from the Act's standards. States that the posting of a citation shall not be required after the violation has been abated, or a proceeding contesting the citation has been concluded by a final order. Provides that it shall be an affirmative defense to any proceeding under that Act that: (1) the employer furnished adequate notice and exerted all reasonable efforts to obtain the compliance of his employees and the violation of the Act was attributable to such employees; (2) the employer did not receive at least 30 days prior actual notice of a standard; and (3) the standard which is the subject of the violation charged would not have effectively constituted an improvement of occupational safety and health in the circumstances under which the charge is brought. Gives the Review Commission (previously the Secretary) final authority to affirm or modify abatement requirements in a citation. Assesses a civil penalty of up to $1000 for a series of non-serious violations of standards or orders under the Act, unless the employer voluntarily complies with the applicable standards upon such terms as the Secretary determines appropriate under the circumstances. (Amends 29 U.S.C. 653-66)

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on June 10, 1974. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.