Las Vegas NowNevada panel over debates worker safety training plan
Associated Press - April 27, 2009 8:25 PM ET
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Changes to speed up the workplace safety training for new employees, in efforts to reduce on-the-job deaths and injuries, prompted questions Monday in a Nevada Assembly committee hearing.
AB148 requires 10 hours of safety training for employees and 30 hours of safety training for supervisors. Companies would have to drop workers who don't get the training in a timely manner. The measure stems from the deaths of 12 workers at Las Vegas Strip construction sites over an 18-month period.
Debate on AB148 in an Assembly Ways and Means Committee hearing focused on a change to the bill that shortens the deadline for both employees and supervisors to complete the safety training to 15 days from the date of hire instead of the 60 days originally in the bill.
Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, told committee members that the new deadline will make job sites safer and prevent deaths.
Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, said the bill previously had a broad range of support, but that the new time frame prompted "a change in the tide because people were very concerned about being able to comply in 15 days."
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