From KyCIR: Amid Worker Safety Scrutiny, Kentucky Labor Secretary Proposes Merging Cabinets
Thanks to Liles Taylor for sending us this.
By ELEANOR KLIBANOFF
Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting
The Kentucky Labor Cabinet is asking the legislature to do something bold — put it out of business.
The Labor Cabinet would merge with the Public Protection Cabinet under a plan proposed Tuesday to the Senate Economic Development, Tourism and Labor Committee. Cabinet leaders said eliminating the Labor Cabinet would save money, streamline government and improve the functions of Kentucky’s Occupational Safety and Health agency, which has been under federal scrutiny since a critical audit released in August.
The federal audit, first publicized by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in November, found that Kentucky had failed to properly investigate nearly every worker fatality in a two-year period. Inspectors often didn’t interview eyewitnesses, missed worker safety violations and improperly blamed employees for their own deaths, according to the investigation, published in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity and the Ohio Valley ReSource.