Virginia Foxx: “It is very disturbing to me as a citizen of this country, to hear the talk about increasing incidents of violence. We…”

“It is very disturbing to me as a citizen of this country, to hear the talk about increasing incidents of violence. We know that is occurring all over our country, everywhere. However, this bill is not going to respond to the underlying causes of that increased violence, and neither will this amendment. This amendment ignores the fundamental reason that employers maintain good recordkeeping. It allows employers to review their internal procedures and determine how to improve their safety culture. While it is very important for facilities to keep accurate records of incidents, responses to incidents, and annual data, providing this information annually to OSHA will not result in greater safety benefits. Requiring the Secretary of Labor to provide this data to Congress goes yet another ill-advised step further. Employers utilize these records to improve internal management processes in order to protect their workplace. However, if they must submit these reports to OSHA, which will, in turn, provide them to Congress, this will discourage the use of these records to make improvements, as the employer has no guarantee the records will not be released by OSHA either intentionally or unintentionally. Workplace violence records must be maintained and protected onsite as they contain personal employee information as well as patient-client information. An OSHA inspector would still have the right to review the records upon inspection of the facility.…”