SGMA welcomes new partnership with OSHA

Under a program known as “Excellence 2000,” members of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and their employees will benefit from a deeper and more cooperative relationship with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The program, laid out in an agreement between SGMA and OSHA, encourages employers to carry out many of the routine safety and health inspections now done by OSHA in order “to eliminate the risk of catastrophic fires and to prevent serious injuries and illnesses to workers by establishment of model workplaces for safety and health.” This initiative is consistent with national programs currently underway in the U.S. mainland.

Companies must apply to participate in the program and agree to develop a formal safety and health program closely following OSHA guidelines for their factories and dormitories. As part of the program, companies will agree “to allow OSHA to inspect without delay in the event of a catastrophe, fatality, complaint or referral,” said a statement issued by SGMA.

In exchange, OSHA will limit its inspections to compliance with the program and provide training to assist the effort. OSHA however will continue its legal charge to investigate workplace injuries and to investigate signed and unsigned complaints that aren’t resolved by employers under the company program.

A number of provisions encourage employee involvement in the safety and sanitation of their work and living places, including the mandatory establishment of a joint employer/employee safety and health committee. Employee representatives would be involved in inspections by the company or by OSHA and the agreement specifies that they are protected from any discrimination for exercising rights under the OSHA law.

“So long as the company is meeting the intent of the partnership,” the agreement says, “OSHA will conduct focused verification inspections in lieu of programmed inspections.”

“This is a real breakthrough for us,” said SGMA executive director Richard A. Pierce, who noted that in the past that there were many misunderstandings about the purpose and legal basis for the OSHA inspections by members of the organization.

“It was simply new to them,” Mr. Pierce said, “and this sometimes created an adversarial relationship. Along with the start of inspections by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, SGMA’s credibility as an organization that is working hard to solve problems of its members and their employees has never been better.”

Pierce noted that while officials from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Labor have continued to be highly critical of the Saipan garment industry in Washington, D.C., “what this agreement shows, once again, is that those officials who work with us everyday on the ground, on Saipan, know that they can trust us. They’re well aware of progress that has been and continues to be made. It’s too bad the politics back there make it impossible for them to say it.”

“[W]hat we’re doing in cooperation with OSHA through this program will do a lot more to help our workers than all the shouting and window breaking.”