Ky. Gov. Andy Beshear vetoes business-backed bill weakening state's worker safety protections

John Cheves, Lexington Herald-Leader on Mar 24, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday vetoed a business-backed bill that would weaken Kentucky’s state-regulated workplace protections.

In his veto message, Beshear, a Democrat, said he opposed House Bill 398 because it “would make Kentuckians less safe in the workplace and hand over much of the authority to regulate, investigate and enforce Kentucky workplace safety and health standards to the federal government.”

“House Bill 398 will lead to more workplace injuries, with Kentucky workers paying the price,” Beshear warned.

Sought by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the House bill would shrink the regulatory authority of the Kentucky Department of Workplace Standards, which monitors most private employers, so it mirrors the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Walker Thomas, R-Hopkinsville, said he was trying to build “a business-friendly climate.”

There are large companies with operations in multiple states that want to operate under one uniform set of rules, not state-by-state rules, Thomas said in his testimony to a Senate committee.

“This bill just shows our commitment to the business community while not jeopardizing the safety of our great employees,” he said.

The bill specifies that Kentucky can’t adopt new workplace safety rules that are stricter than federal law, and its state officials can’t enforce any existing state standards “more stringent than the corresponding federal provision” enforced by OSHA.

Also, the bill establishes a “de minimis violation,” or a violation that “has no direct or immediate relationship to safety or health.” The department must issue a citation for de minimis violations within six months of an incident. Those citations won’t carry a civil monetary penalty or be considered a repeat violation.

And the bill allows businesses that successfully appeal a workplace safety or health citation to Franklin Circuit Court to request a financial award from the department for their expenses, including legal fees and court costs.

Beshear’s education and labor secretary, Jamie Link, lobbied against the bill throughout the legislative session, but his arguments failed to persuade the Republican super-majorities in both the House and Senate.

The bill passed along party lines with large enough majorities to easily allow an override of Beshear’s veto when lawmakers return to Frankfort on Thursday and Friday for the final two days of their 2025 session.

In his veto message Monday, Beshear repeated several points Link made earlier in the session.

Among those points, Beshear wrote, the bill dismisses Kentucky’s sovereign right to set its own stricter workplace safety standards rather than accept whatever protects the federal government hands down from Washington.

More specifically, Kentucky workers “would lose important safeguards related to fall protection, exposure to toxic and hazardous materials, high-voltage electrical lines and bulk hazardous liquid unloading,” he wrote. “The commonwealth would not be able to enforce its regulation requiring fall protection at heights of 10 feet and greater, because federal regulations start at 30 feet.”

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