[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 244 (Thursday, December 19, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69779-69780]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-27330]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request, Employer Adoption of Voluntary Health and 
Safety Standards, New Collection

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Chief Evaluation 
Office, Department of Labor.

ACTION: Notice of Information Collection; request for comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (DOL), as part of its continuing 
effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a 
preclearance consultation program to provide the general public and 
federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or 
continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA95). This program helps to ensure that 
requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden 
(time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are 
clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirements on 
respondents is properly assessed. Currently, the Department of Labor is 
soliciting comments concerning the collection of data about Employer 
Adoption of Voluntary Health and Safety Standards. A copy of the 
proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) can be obtained by 
contacting the office listed below in the addressee section of this 
notice.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the 
addressee section below on or before February 18, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by either one of the following 
methods: Email: [email protected]; Mail or Courier: Chayun 
Yi, Chief Evaluation Office, OASP, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S-
2312, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210. Instructions: 
Please submit one copy of your comments by only one method. All 
submissions received must include the agency name and OMB Control 
Number identified above for this information collection. Comments, 
including any personal information provided, become a matter of public 
record. They will also be summarized and/or included in the request for 
OMB approval of the information collection request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Chayun Yi by email at 
[email protected] or by phone at (202) 693-5084.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Background: In recent years, a number of 
national and international organizations have developed voluntary 
consensus-based standards designed to help organizations manage 
workplace safety and health in a systematic way. The first of these, 
Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001, was 
published in 1999. After its adoption in 2007 as an official British 
standard, OHSAS 18001 gained broader acceptance worldwide. In 2005, the 
U.S.

[[Page 69780]]

published its first national standard, ANSI/AIHA Z10, which was revised 
in 2012. Most recently, in 2018, the International Organization for 
Standardization (ISO) published an international standard, ISO 45001.
    All of these are based on principles such as those found in ISO 
9001, a standard that help organizations manage quality, and ISO 14001, 
a standard focused on environmental management. Each promotes a 
continuous process in which the organization establishes goals, 
implements programs and actions to achieve those goals, monitors and 
evaluates its performance and progress, and makes adjustments to 
improve the system and its performance. Organizations that adopt these 
standards may choose to have their conformance certified by an 
accredited third party auditor.
    The Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) of the U.S. Department of Labor 
(DOL) is conducting a study to assess employers' adoption of voluntary 
consensus-based safety and health standards. The goal of this study is 
to better understand how these voluntary standards are developed and 
administered, the types of organizations that adopt such standards and 
their motivation for doing so, the perceived and actual benefits and 
costs of their adoption, their relationship to Occupational Safety and 
Health Administration (OSHA) standards, and the extent to which the 
standards promote compliance. OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) 
is not included in this study because unlike the standards described 
above it was not developed through a voluntary industry consensus 
process.
    As part of this effort, CEO intends to collect data from employers 
who have adopted these standards. Specifically, CEO intends to collect 
information on:
    1. The types of employers that adopt these standards and their 
motivation for doing so. This will include information that 
characterize the demographics of the companies that adopt these 
standards (size, industry sector, etc.) and their health and safety 
practices.
    2. The perceived and actual benefits and costs of adopting 
voluntary standards. This will include information on the perceived or 
actual changes in injuries or illnesses, workplace safety, employee 
morale, productivity, turnover, profitability. CEO will also collect 
information on the costs of implementing these programs.
    CEO intends to compare these data to information from other sources 
on the companies that have not adopted voluntary safety and health 
management systems.
    This Federal Register Notice provides the opportunity to comment on 
CEO's proposed data collection and the approach that CEO plans to use 
in collecting these data.
    II. Desired Focus of Comments: Currently, the Department of Labor 
is soliciting comments concerning the above data collection for its 
study to assess employer adoption of voluntary health and safety 
programs. DOL is particularly interested in comments that do the 
following:
    [cir] Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    [cir] evaluate the accuracy of the agency's burden estimate of the 
proposed information collection, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions;
    [cir] enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
to be collected; and
    [cir] minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology--for example, permitting 
electronic submissions of responses.
    III. Current Actions: At this time, the Department of Labor is 
requesting clearance for a survey of companies that have adopted 
voluntary safety and health management systems.
    Type of Review: New information collection request.
    OMB Control Number: 1290-0NEW.
    Affected Public: Companies that have adopted voluntary safety and 
health management systems.
    Comments submitted in response to this request will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget 
approval of the information collection request; they will also become a 
matter of public record.

                                                              Estimated Annual Burden Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                         Average burden
                                                                        Number of        Number of     Total number of      time per        Estimated
                 Type of instrument (form/activity)                    respondents     responses per      responses         response       burden hours
                                                                                         respondent                         (hours)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employer Survey....................................................           1,000                1            1,000             0.50              500
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Christina Yancey,
Chief Evaluation Officer, U.S. Department of Labor.
[FR Doc. 2019-27330 Filed 12-18-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4510-HX-P