Committee reviews S.117 technical fixes on VOSHA rulemaking, workers’ compensation and layoff notices

Montpelier — The Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development on April 3 heard from Michael Harrington, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Labor, and department staff on proposed technical changes to S.117 that would streamline Vermont Occupational Safety and Health (VOSHA) rulemaking, clarify wage-and-hour collections, adjust layoff-notice thresholds and make a range of unemployment insurance (UI) and workers’ compensation updates.

Committee members were told the package is largely technical but contains provisions that affect how the state adopts federal safety standards, how unpaid-wage collections are disbursed, and how the state receives notice of mass layoffs — measures that could affect workers, employers and departmental operations.

“We are required as we have a state plan to implement the minimum standard,” Commissioner Michael Harrington said, describing a proposed change to let VOSHA adopt federal minimum OSHA standards without duplicative state rulemaking in cases where Vermont does not intend to be more restrictive. Harrington said the change is intended as an efficiency and cost-saving measure; each filing currently costs the department about $2,500, and filings can number several per year.

Committee members discussed several worker-facing and administrative changes in the draft, including:

- VOSHA rulemaking: The department would be authorized to adopt federal minimum OSHA standards without full Vermont rulemaking when it does not intend to exceed the federal standard. Harrington said the department would continue to notify the committee when new standards are adopted and that the state/federal funding for VOSHA is traditionally a roughly 50/50 match.

- Wage-and-hour collections: The bill clarifies that back wages collected by the department should go to the employee first; the statutory language would be explicit…