Panel OKs workplace safety task force

AUGUSTA – A Legislative committee voted unanimously Thursday in favor of creating a task force to look into strengthening workplace safety requirements for some Maine businesses.

The 7-0 vote came at the end of a work session Thursday afternoon on a bill being considered by the Legislature’s joint committee on labor. The bill, LD 1699, was proposed by Rep. Jeremy Fischer, D-Presque Isle, in response to the killing last year of Erin Sperrey, 20, a Presque Isle woman who allegedly was beaten to death by a co-worker while on the job at a Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut shop in Caribou.

Johna Lovely, Sperrey’s mother, testified in favor of the bill last week in front of the committee and addressed the panel again Thursday. Lovely is trying to get the Legislature to require Maine retail businesses that stay open late to have panic buttons – a feature that she claims could have saved her daughter’s life had there been one where Sperrey worked.

Lovely said existing state law requires businesses that stay open 24 hours a day and convenience stores to have a working phone or alarm system in the event an emergency arises. At the time of Sperrey’s death, there was no specialized alarm system at the Tim Hortons in Caribou, she said.

“It was just a regular telephone,” Lovely said. “They had no panic button, no cameras, no security, and it was open 24 hours a day.”

Members of the committee who attended the session agreed that a task force should be established to research existing workplace safety laws in other states and to look into the practicality of requiring retail businesses to have panic buttons. They agreed Maine Department of Labor should head the task force, and that business interests, law enforcement, and anti-domestic violence advocates should be represented on the task force.

They did not agree whether labor interests should have a seat at the table.

Rep. Brian Duprey, Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello, and Rep. Darren Hall, all Republicans, each indicated that they opposed letting union representatives take part in the process.

“It seems ridiculous to me to include them in something they have no stake in whatsoever,” said Hall, a certified public accountant from Holden.

Sen. Ethan Strimling, Rep. Herbert Clark and Rep. Deborah Hutton, all Democrats, each voiced support for letting union representatives participate in the process. Strimling, head of a social services agency in Portland, noted that union officials already have had discussions on the matter with anti-domestic violence advocates and other interested parties.

“It seems a little crazy to cut them out after that conversation has begun,” he said.

“Labor brings a lot to the table,” said Clark, who works as a pipe fitter at a paper mill in the Millinocket area.

After a brief discussion, the committee Republicans seemed to acquiesce.

“What do I care?” Duprey, a Hampden business owner, said as he rolled his eyes.