Rep. Shane Abbott Credit: Photo via State of Florida

Florida Rep. Shane Abbott, R-DeFuniak Springs, once again made the false statement that Florida has a state Occupational Safety and Health Administration agency, in defense of a bill that opponents say would gut over a dozen worker protections for temporary employees if passed.

In fact, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush repealed Florida’s state OSHA statutes—the ones cited by Rep. Shane Abbott on Tuesday—25 years ago, thereby dismantling a state division of safety that had formerly been housed within a state labor department. Bush abolished that department entirely just a couple of years later.

Abbott, in explaining his bill (HB 6033) to the Florida House Commerce Committee, claimed that Florida has a state OSHA agency under Florida Statutes 442.001—statutes that no longer exist today, as a result of Bush’s 25-year-old executive order.

Florida’s old worker safety division was modeled after the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency that regulates and enforces workplace safety and health standards to protect working people on the job and the families they go home to at night.

In fact, Florida lawmakers participated in a special legislative session just a few years ago in 2021 where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis championed an effort to create a state OSHA agency—only because he falsely believed that doing so would allow the state to avoid complying with federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates from the Biden administration’s federal OSHA.

Under federal rules, state OSHAs cannot be less restrictive than the federal version, a former OSHA official confirmed to Orlando Weekly, and a state OSHA in Florida would not have been exempt from federal oversight.

The Florida Legislature, dominated by Republicans, approved DeSantis’s plan directing the state to come up with a way to create a state OSHA. But that plan never materialized, and the plan was consequently abandoned.

“There is no state OSHA,” Florida AFL-CIO director of politics and public policy Rich Templin confirmed Tuesday, during public testimony on Rep. Abbott’s bill. Instead, Florida falls under federal oversight only. And because federal OSHA only covers private sector workplaces, public employees are protected only according to whatever safety standards their employer or municipality has independently mandated for themselves.

According to the AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions, worker protection agencies like federal OSHA have been flat-funded for years. As of 2023, there were 1,875 inspectors nationwide to inspect 11.5 million workplaces under OSHA jurisdiction. That’s one inspector for about every 80,014 workers. The AFL-CIO estimates that this level of staffing leaves the U.S. with only enough inspectors to inspect every workplace covered by OSHA once every 186 years.

Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, challenged Abbott on his claim about Florida’s OSHA agency, pointing out that even ChatGPT, powered by artificial intelligence, states that Florida doesn’t have a state OSHA.

“The reality is that without a [Department of Labor] and now without these basic protections, we’re continuously just squeezing the most vulnerable and their ability to have an honest job, honest work and honest pay,” said Eskamani.

Abbott’s bill nonetheless cleared the House Committee with majority support, and will now head to the full Florida House for a vote.

What would Abbott’s bill do?

Abbott’s bill, HB 6033, seeks to repeal Florida’s Labor Pool Act, a law passed by the Florida Legislature in 1995 to enhance rights and protections for temporary and day laborers.

Under Florida’s Labor Pool Act, day laborers are defined as “temporary labor or employment that is occasional or irregular for which the worker is employed for not longer than the time period required to complete the temporary assignment for which the individual worker was hired.”

According to Beyond the Bars, a worker justice organization in South Florida that advocates for workers who’ve done time, there are nearly 1 million temp workers in Florida who take day jobs in construction, transportation, warehousing and other industries with a low bar to entry.

Florida’s Labor Pool Act currently offers several labor protections for temp workers that aren’t covered by any other state or federal law—including pay stub transparency from staffing agencies (i.e., an itemized statement showing in detail each wage deduction on workers’ paychecks), and the right not to be charged more than a “reasonable amount” for transportation to a job site from a labor hall (no more than $1.50 each way).

Staffing agencies under the law are also required to provide temp workers with access to restrooms and seating in a labor hall, in the event they are forced to wait hours at a labor hall for a job for the day.

“Us working Floridians are not to be used and abused. We deserve to know what’s being taken from our pay, to have temp-to-permanent opportunities, and to have chairs to sit on,” said Davonte, a temp worker and member of Beyond the Bars, speaking to senators on the Senate Fiscal Policy committee last week. “This is the bare minimum, and please don’t take that away from us.”

Karen Woodall, with the Florida Center for Fiscal & Economic Policy, told House lawmakers Tuesday that she was there when the Labor Pool Act was passed, “and it was passed for a reason.” “There were thousands of workers utilizing services of labor halls, labor pools, and there were problems, and there were issues that were not covered by federal law,” she recalled.

Florida’s Labor Pool Act of 1995 was Republican-sponsored, according to the now-defunct Tampa Tribune, and supported by legal aid lawyers, religious groups, homeless advocates and others. One lawyer described current working conditions for temp workers at the time as exploitative.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” Arthur Rosenberg, then a lawyer for a Miami-area legal aid group, told the Tribune. “They’re exploited because they need jobs desperately. That’s what happens in sweatshops. When you’re at the bottom level, there’s no place else to go.”

Meanwhile, a representative for a Tampa staffing agency told the Tribune bluntly, “I think it stinks.”

What is Abbott’s defense of the bill?

Abbott argues that the Labor Pool Act is “duplicative” and unnecessary.

“The fact of the matter is that these laws are duplicate of other federal and state laws,” said Abbott, explaining his bill Tuesday. “The industry is already highly regulated, both federally and by other state wage and employer regulations.”

As Orlando Weekly has previously reported, Florida does not have a state agency dedicated to enforcing workplace safety and health standards, nor Florida’s minimum wage requirements, leaving low-wage workers especially vulnerable to wage theft.

Abbott also pointed out that there is no state agency to enforce Florida’s Labor Pool Act, since Florida no longer has a state department of labor or any other agency that’s taken up enforcement of the law.

Maya Ragsdale, founder and co-executive director of Beyond the Bars, confirmed to Orlando Weekly this is true, but pointed out that workers can still take private legal action—and have done so in the past.

In fact, one of the only public supporters of Abbott’s bill, Pacesetters Personnel Services, has itself been sued over alleged violations of the Florida Labor Pool Act. A lobbyist for the staffing agency waived in support of the bill Tuesday.

“One of the arguments used in favor of this bill is that the cause of action isn’t used often enough, but that doesn’t mean the law isn’t working. It just means we need more enforcement,” argued Jackson Oberlink, legislative director of the progressive advocacy group Florida for All. “That’s like saying the fire department isn’t coming, so we might as well burn the whole house down,” he added. “The logic just doesn’t hold.”

What’s next?

Abbott’s bill will need to get a majority vote of support from both the Florida House and Senate to pass. Then, if that happens, it would go to the governor’s desk for final approval—or a veto.

This post first appeared at our sibling publication, Orlando Weekly.

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