Federal – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published a proposed regulation to amend the Remedy for Violation of Requirements to Provide Personal Protective Equipment and Train Employees regulation currently in place.

Specifically, this proposal clarifies that “noncompliance with the personal protective equipment (PPE) and training requirements in safety and health standards may expose the employer to liability on a per-employee basis.”

The regulations would not require employers to provide a new type of PPE or training, or to cover employees that were not previously covered by existing requirements. The proposed regulation’s purpose is to clarify solutions for violations of existing requirements, and to create a standard throughout OSHA provisions so that the agency can deal with an employer’s failure to provide the required training and/or PPE as individual violations.

OSHA’s regulatory additions include:

• Personal protective equipment. Standards in this part requiring the employer to provide personal protective equipment (PPE), including respirators, because of hazards to employees impose a separate compliance duty to each employee covered by the requirement. The employer must provide PPE to each employee required to use the PPE, and each failure to provide PPE to an employee may be considered a separate violation.

• Training. Standards in this part requiring training on hazards and related matters, such as standards requiring that employees receive training or that the employer train employees, provide training to employees, or institute or implement a training program, impose a separate compliance duty to each employee covered by the requirement. The employer must train each affected employee in the manner required by the standard, and each failure to train an employee may be considered a separate violation.

To review the entire proposed regulation, visit the Automotive Service Association’s legislative Web site, www.takingthehill.com.

Federal – The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee is currently reviewing H.R. 5840, the Insurance Information Act of 2008, which would establish a federal Office of Insurance Information within the Department of the Treasury. The bill was introduced in April by Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.).

The Office of Insurance Information (OII) would provide expertise on insurance policy to the administration and to Congress. Within the OII, the legislation proposes an advisory group of up to 13 members including representatives of the administration, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and other representatives of the insurance industry who the secretary of the treasury deems appropriate.

The bill was first reviewed in the subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, and was voted to the House Financial Services Committee, where it now sits, in July.

California – The Collision Repair Association of California (CRA) has asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto A.B. 2825 (Assemblywoman Wilma Carter, D-62), which was passed by the Assembly on Aug. 18. This bill would require repairers to give customers wholesale invoices for crash parts that cost $50 or more and would mandate that estimates and final invoices contain a disclosure that part switching is illegal.

Dubbed the “paperwork act of 2008” by the CRA, this bill would make California the first state in the nation to require businesses to turn over wholesale records to customers. The CRA, the California Autobody Association (CAA) and the California Motor Car Dealers Association oppose the bill.

The bill is similar to the author’s legislation that vetoed last year. Given that the state Bureau of Automotive Repair updated invoice requirements through rulemaking last year, the CRA believes the purpose of A.B. 2825 is unclear.