WASHINGTON (FNS) -- It promises to be an extraordinary second half on Capitol Hill as momentum builds to advance truck loads of legislation that could impinge on almost every aspect of the way the food distribution industry does business. Points of concern range from the contentious health care reform initiative to considerations as mundane as who is permitted to dispose of cardboard boxes.
Mindful of the load of legislation, the industry's chief lobbying apparatus -- the Food Marketing Institute here -- has been gearing up for nearly a year and a half so it can be ready for the challenges ahead, Harry Sullivan, FMI senior vice president and general counsel, said in an interview. Chief on the legislative agenda for upcoming months, in terms of initiatives that could affect the industry, are:
Health care reform, which is opposed by some industry segments because of employer mandates that would be imposed.
Paperwork requirements, which would be stepped up next year under provisions of a requirement that reports must be filed with the Health Care Financing Administration concerning employees and their dependents covered by employer-sponsored health care. The requirement is seen as burdensome by some.
Striker replacement, which is a big focus of organized labor. Those groups are making themselves known in the shape of a Senate bill that would prohibit the hiring of permanent replacement workers during a strike.
Cardboard balers, a subject that is the focus of intense lobbying. The industry is trying to raise the awareness of representatives about such machines. Current law prohibits 16- and 17-year-old store workers from operating or feeding such machines. Here's a closer look at these and other legislative activities:
HEALTH CARE REFORM
As is the case with many business-oriented organizations, FMI opposes President Clinton's health care reform plan primarily because of employer mandates that would be imposed. Under the plan, retailers would be required to pay 80% of the health premiums on all workers, both full-time and part-time. The typical supermarket employs more than 50 part-timers, so FMI estimates universal coverage could add some $100,000 in costs to each store. Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year, Sullivan said: "Clearly, this is a huge cost for an industry with a bottom line of one-half of one cent of profit for every dollar of sales." If proposed mandates are enacted, jobs will be lost and work schedules manipulated to reduce the number of part-timers, Sullivan said. Also, food prices will rise as stores find ways to absorb additional costs.
Instead of the president's proposal, FMI favors the approach offered by House Minority Leader Robert Michel, R-Ill., which adopts a series of marketplace reforms. Those endorsed by FMI include creation of voluntary insurance purchasing groups to help smaller businesses and uninsured individuals buy insurance at more affordable rates, and creation of basic and affordable benefits packages. FMI also favors insurance reforms that would ensure that insurance companies could not cancel coverage granted employers and employees. Such coverage could not be denied those with pre-existing conditions. The coverage would also continue as workers change jobs.
Additionally, FMI supports 100% deductions for health insurance premiums, including the self-employed and those who buy their own coverage. Also favored is pre-emption of state benefit mandates and anti-managed care laws, reform of medical malpractice laws, uniform claims forms and electronic billing and subsidies for those who can't afford insurance.
It's too early to tell what the final health care reform package will look like, although it's predicted by George R. Green, FMI vice president and assistant general counsel, that bits of different proposals will be cobbled together into shape by the time Congress adjourns for fall elections.
Sullivan pointed out that the final form of the package will depend on when the White House decides to compromise with Congress.
PAPERWORK
In the 1994 budget reconciliation package was a requirement directing employers to file reports with the Health Care Financing Administration on employees and their dependents covered by employer-sponsored health care.
The ruling is aimed at identifying the segment of the work force that also is eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, because under federal law the employer-sponsored health insurance should be the first payer. Sometimes this is not the case.
The requirement, to go into effect January, is burdensome to employers, Sullivan said. FMI has joined a coalition of other business groups in an attempt to repeal the provision.
ORGANIZED LABOR
Pending in the Senate is a bill backed by organized labor that would prohibit the hiring of permanent replacement workers during a strike. The measure earlier passed the House in a 239-190 vote. Staffers on the Senate Labor Committee said the Senate sponsor, Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, is three votes short of mustering the 60 needed to stop a threatened Republican filibuster against the measure. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, has said he won't bring it up unless the delaying tactic can be stopped.
But since the White House supports the measure, FMI is working to ensure it would fail in the Senate should it ever get to a vote. "It would cause more strikes and more community disruptions," Green said about the bill. He noted that it would affect both union and nonunion stores.
FMI has asked its members to contact their senators to oppose the bill and has established an 800 number to facilitate direct communications between retailers and senators. A list of seven senators whose opposition must be held, in the judgment of opponents, and of the 11 senators who voted for the bill has been issued by FMI to its members. Another item on organized labor's agenda is a comprehensive overhaul of workplace safety laws administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agenda has been approved by the House Education and Labor Committee.
The measure would require most employers to set up in-house safety committees with the authority to write workplace health and safety plans. The measure calls for speeding up federal investigations of workplace accidents and the establishment of criminal penalties against supervisors who permit unsafe working conditions that lead to death. A deliberate violation of OSHA standards that resulted in death could bring a manager up to 10 years in prison. Currently, supervisors aren't personally liable for such violations. The Clinton administration has heartily endorsed the bill. A similar version is pending in the Senate Labor Committee.
Green described the bill as "labor law reform disguised as OSHA reform." He maintains that the proposed joint employer-employee boards would have "incredible power to shut down the workplace." Other criticisms of the plan are that it would be burdensome to employers, would impose excessive regulation that would hamper growth, and that it is unnecessary because the number of work-related deaths is down.
FMI is part of a big business coalition fighting the reform, with the help of congressional Republicans. Another bill FMI is following is aimed at protecting workers from technology that could infringe on their rights. It is sponsored by Labor-Management Relations Subcommittee Chairman Pat Williams, D-Mont.
The measure would require employers to notify workers before electronically monitoring workplace activities. Workers would have the right to know how the monitoring would be conducted. It would also forbid abuse of electronic monitoring by computer, telephone, radio or other means. Republicans and business leaders oppose the bill with the claim that, if enacted, it would cut too broadly into employers' rights to manage their businesses.
CARDBOARD BALERS
Current law prohibits 16- and 17-year-olds from operating machines that bale cardboard. The law also includes prohibitions against minors putting cardboard boxes in the machines.
The industry is attempting to change the Labor Department's interpretation of the regulation, which forbids younger workers to put boxes in the balers. The industry opposes the law under the logic that modern machines won't operate while they are in the loading position. The law has not been updated since its adoption in 1954.
In an attempt to win support for the effort, FMI is informing members of Congress about the machines by taking them on store tours. Two congressmen, Reps. Matthew Martinez, D-Calif., and Austin Murphy, D-Pa., chairman of the House Occupational Health and Safety Subcommittee, have written a letter to Labor Secretary Robert Reich seeking a review of the ruling. The letter termed the restrictions "unfair in the extreme," noting "the throwing of empty boxes into the baler is no more hazardous than placing them into a trash bin." Murphy and Martinez also urged Reich to review how the Labor Department enforces the provision. They said claims of violations that may result in fines are often issued on the basis of accusations from former employees who say they remember throwing paper into machines.
STATE AND OTHER INITIATIVES
On the state level, FMI is active in developing procedures for electronic benefits transfer and price verification. On the issue of price accuracy, FMI is working with the National Conference on Weights and Measures to set standards for uniform, fair and standard pricing procedures as a result of complaints that some scanning devices are inaccurate and that retailers sometimes don't correct inaccurate readings.
