[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1793 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 1793

 To provide an exemption from citation by the Secretary of Labor under 
the Occupational Safety and Health Act to employers of individuals who 
perform rescues of individuals in imminent danger as a result of a life 
             threatening accident, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 25, 1994

Mr. Kempthorne introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
         referred to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide an exemption from citation by the Secretary of Labor under 
the Occupational Safety and Health Act to employers of individuals who 
perform rescues of individuals in imminent danger as a result of a life 
             threatening accident, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Heroic Efforts to Rescue Others 
Act'' (HERO Act).

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) existing Occupational Safety and Health Administration 
        regulations require the issuance of a citation to an employer 
        in a circumstance in which an employee of such employer has 
        voluntarily acted in a heroic manner to rescue individuals from 
        imminent harm during work hours;
            (2) application of such regulations to employers in such 
        circumstance causes hardships to those employers who are 
        responsible for employees who perform heroic acts to save 
        individuals from imminent harm;
            (3) strict application of such regulations in such 
        circumstance penalizes employers as a result of the time lost 
        and legal fees incurred to defend against such citations; and
            (4) in order to save employers the cost of unnecessary 
        enforcement an exemption from the issuance of a citation to an 
        employer under certain situations related to such circumstance 
        is appropriate.

SEC. 3. CITATIONS.

    Section 9 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (29 U.S.C. 658) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(d)(1) No citation may be issued under this section with respect 
to a rescue by an employer's employee of an individual in imminent harm 
unless--
            ``(A)(i) such employee is designated by the employee's 
        employer for service on a rescue team; and
            ``(ii) the employer fails to provide protection of the 
        safety and health of such employee, including failing to 
        provide rescue equipment or providing inadequate personal 
        protective equipment;
            ``(B)(i) such employee is directed by the employee's 
        employer to perform rescue activities in the course of carrying 
        out the employee's job duties; and
            ``(ii) the employer fails to provide protection of the 
        safety and health of such employee, including failing to 
        provide rescue equipment or providing inadequate personal 
        protective equipment; or
            ``(C)(i) such employee--
                    ``(I) is employed in a workplace that requires such 
                employee to carry out duties that are directly related 
                to a workplace operation where the likelihood of life-
                threatening accidents is foreseeable, such as a 
                workplace operation where employees are located in 
                confined spaces or trenches, handle hazardous waste, 
                respond to emergency situations, or perform excavations 
                or construction over water;
                    ``(II) has no occupational responsibility to rescue 
                such an individual; and
                    ``(III) voluntarily elects to rescue such an 
                individual; and
            ``(ii) the employer fails to provide training to such 
        employee prior to the assignment of such employee to such 
        workplace operation on the recognition of the hazards inherent 
        in a rescue effort and the risks to a potential rescuer who is 
        not trained in rescue operations.
    ``(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term `imminent harm' 
means the existence of any condition or practice that could reasonably 
be expected to cause death or serious physical harm before such 
condition or practice can be abated.''.

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