David Keeling confirmed as new head of OSHA

David Keeling has been confirmed to guide the Occupational Security and Well being Administration because the assistant secretary of labor. The U.S. Senate voted 51-47 to accredited his affirmation, together with a block of dozens of different nominees for different federal businesses, on Tuesday.

Keeling is Amazon’s former director of street and transportation security, a job he left in mid-2023 to do consulting, according to LinkedIn. He additionally spent about 36 years working for the United Parcel Service in a number of regional security supervisor and director roles earlier than changing into its vp of world well being and security.

Keeling is moving into OSHA’s lead function because the company works to develop a federal commonplace meant to guard employees from excessive warmth. That draft rule goals to require many employers to offer employees with entry to water, relaxation and shade. A remark interval for the rule was lately prolonged to the tip of October.

In his function at OSHA, Keeling has stated he’ll prioritize the views of on a regular basis employees, one thing he discovered throughout his time at UPS.

“The very best supply of security enhancements originates with the individuals who carry out the job each day,” he stated in prepared remarks throughout his June 5 affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Committee on Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions.

Underneath his management, Keeling stated he would prioritize updating a few of OSHA’s “outdated programs and processes,” saying some requirements have “change into antiquated or unusable within the face of job modernization or technological developments inside the office.”

He additionally believes OSHA would profit from expertise and information assortment enhancements he stated might assist higher observe and measure metrics in an effort to catch questions of safety earlier than they trigger accidents or demise.

“We should reap the benefits of current world {industry} consensus requirements which have gone by far more rigorous evaluate, common updating, and steady enchancment than have a lot of OSHA’s current guidelines,” he stated in his remarks.

Some security advocacy teams, together with the Coalition for Office Security and the Related Normal Contractors, have praised Keeling’s nomination. The National Safety Council referred to as Keeling “a confirmed security chief who will assist proceed the company’s lengthy legacy of defending the well being and wellbeing of our employees,” and the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, of which Keeling stated he was as soon as a member, additionally applauded his nomination.

But others, just like the Nationwide Employment Regulation Challenge, have expressed concerns that Keeling’s background will lead him to aspect with enterprise pursuits over stronger security protections, significantly for warmth publicity.

Throughout his affirmation listening to in June, Keeling stated he most popular requirements be set by an {industry}, not by the federal government. He described industry-led requirements as having a extra rigorous evaluate course of and extra frequent updates than some requirements set by OSHA.

Executives from each UPS and Amazon have lobbied towards federal warmth guidelines, the New York Times reported, and each firms have confronted latest citations from OSHA for heat-related employee accidents.