'Duty of Care' bill dies in committee LARAMIE, WY (wpr) - A state legislative committee voted down a contentious bill today (Monday) that pitted oil and gas companies against workers. Wyoming Public Radio's Renny MacKay reports

The bill was titled Duty of Care, because it related to how much duty a company has to care for the safety of people working for contractors and subcontractors. The bill related to all such relationships, but the emphasis was on oil and gas. Scott Meyers is a former roughneck who had a friend die while working on a drilling rig. He says there was clear negligence in the death yet his friend's family only received 5000 dollars to pay for a burial. Meyers says something has to be done to take care of families and protect workers still in the field... and he would like workers to be able to sue oil and gas companies.
"If this bill would have been passed, like what they argued about there was it will just cause more litigation, well as soon as it causes more litigation and they lose a couple of times. If something costs you a bunch of money aren't you going to change how things are done, it's common sense isn't it."
Opponents argued there are better ways to protect workers. There are several ongoing studies into how to reduce the high number of workplace fatalities in the state.
For Wyoming Public Radio I'm Renny MacKay.
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