Worker “Right to Know” in 30-year Retrospect: Did We Get it Right, with What We Know Today?

Authors

  • James T. O'Reilly University of Cincinnati

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pjephl.2008.5

Abstract

Three decades later, did we negotiators get it right? When in 2007 we passed the 30th anniversary of the first “right to know” workplace disclosure rules,

 

1 should we who negotiated the rule reflect favorably on what was produced? And which of the competing sides, once labeled Doomsayers or Pollyannas, has been proven correct by the miraculous clarity of hindsight? We who were “present at the creation” of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (“OSHA”) Hazard Communication Standard2 find the saga a mixture of success, frustration and unmet expectations. This essay offers one player’s historical and policy retrospective, and I draw an ambiguous conclusion about an unsettled controversy.

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Published

2008-04-15

Issue

Vol. 2 (2008): Volume 2: Spring 2008

Section

Articles

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