Feds Taking Over Some Workplace Safety Inspections

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will take over some of the state’s workplace safety inspections for the next three years.

Keoki Kerr reports for Hawaii News Now that mass layoffs under the Lingle administration handicapped the state’s ability to do inspections, so the feds are chipping in. OSHA will perform 200 inspections in 2013, 150 in 2014 and 100 in 2015 as the Abercrombie administration ramps up its staffing.

“We have a lot of new employees. A lot of employees or staff who are inexperienced who need training just so that they can get up to speed in terms of effective enforcement,” Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Director Dwight Takamine told Kerr.

Watch the full story here: Feds temporarily taking over some Hawaii workplace safety inspections

— Michael Levine