Mississippi-based American Family Association was alarmed to learn the Occupational Safety and Health Administration plans to alter its current safety rules to redefine a “third party” inspector.
In an email to AFA supporters, president Tim Wildmon explained the current rule allows for an employee representative to accompany a federal inspector who is conducting a safety inspection.
OSHA plans to alter the rule to state, “The representative(s) authorized by employees may be an employee of the employer or a third party.”
It is the allowance of a “third party” that alarmed AFA, which is not accepting OSHA’s explanation it wants to expand the rule to include a person with “a range of knowledge, skills, or experience beyond that obtained through formal or technical education.”
“Currently, in order to inspect the facility,” says AFA spokesman Walker Wildmon, “OSHA workers or third-party experts that come in have to have a reasonable expertise or license in a given field in order to go in with OSHA and be part of an inspection.”
In other words, if OSHA comes in to inspect fire extinguishers, it could bring along a fire marshal or another certified expert to perform that inspection.
Citing that OSHA statement about skills “beyond that obtained through formal or technical education,” Wildmon says the proposed changes would remove a very important requirement.
“They are proposing to allow third-party vendors and third-party companies,” he warns, “to inspect facilities with OSHA without having to have an expertise or a certain license in a given field.”
Considering the current White House administration used the FBI to target school board parents and to infiltrate Catholic churches, and President Biden attempted to use OSHA to impose COVID-19 shots, AFA smells a political rat behind the proposed rule change. Businesses, churches, and non-profits that are enemies of the Biden administration would be at risk, for example, of a business rival or an atheist group walking their hallways.
AFA is urging its supporters to leave a Federal Register comment about the OSHA rule before a Nov. 13 deadline.
Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
