Oklahoma Labor Commissioner defends state’s safety record

TULSA — In a recent "report card" issued by the National Safety Council Oklahoma got an "F" in workplace safety, which doesn't sit well with Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Melissa McLawhorn Houston.

“I was shocked,” she said Friday, “because I know that we’re doing some really good work on workplace safety."

She tells KRMG she fired off a letter to the NSC for an explanation, since Oklahoma’s average number of workplace accidents is well below the national average, and has come down in recent years - a decrease of 47% in the last decade.

I can't imagine - how can we get an "F" on workplace safety? -- Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Melissa McLawhorn Houston

What she heard back convinces her that the NSC has a political agenda, and the report card isn’t a serious appraisal of workplace safety in the state.

"The first thing I noticed was that the measurements are really not fair measurements," she said. "So things like our incident rate aren't counted. Things like a decrease aren't counted. Things like have you passed a law that bans gun in the workplace is counted."

She said some of the measurements they had sometimes weren’t factual.

“One of the questions was whether or not you have a workplace safety program for public employees. They said we did not.”

But Oklahoma is one of seven states that has primary jurisdiction over public sector employees, so that claim is obviously inaccurate, Houston said.

But in the response to her letter, the NSC did not back down. “Basically their response was ‘what we’re trying to do is pass model legislation across the country, and this report card is to start a dialogue with your legislature about laws that need to be passed, and you have not passed these laws, so therefore your grade will not change.’”

She knows that the report has no actual impact on her office, the state, or worker safety in Oklahoma.

But she felt it was important for her to speak up.

“I wanted to respond on behalf of our employees, on behalf of the people at the Department of Labor who work so hard each and every day to protect the safety of the worker. I wanted to respond on behalf of our companies, that have a lower than the national average incident rate. I wanted to respond on behalf of Oklahomans, who understand that we can do these things when we work together, without a government mandate.”

The NSC also rated states in road safety (Oklahoma got a “C” there) and home and community safety (another “F”).