Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA ) is an agency of the United States Department of Labor. Congress established an agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. The OSHA mission is to "ensure safe and healthy working conditions for men and women working by establishing and enforce standards and by providing training, counseling, education and assistance ". The body is also charged with enacting various laws and regulations of the complainant. OSHA is currently headed by Assistant Secretary of Labor Officer Loren Sweatt. OSHA safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury and injury costs without adverse effects on employment, sales, credit ratings, or company survival.
Video Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Histori
OSHA was officially established on 28 April 1971, the date on which OSH Law became effective. George Guenther was appointed first director of the agency.
OSHA has a number of training, compliance assistance, and health and safety recognition programs throughout its history. The OSHA Training Institute, which trains government and private sector health and safety personnel, began in 1972. In 1978, the institute began a grant program, now called the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, to train workers and employers in reducing on-site hazards work. OSHA started the Voluntary Protection Program in 1982, allowing employers to apply as a "workplace model" to achieve special designation if they meet certain requirements.
Maps Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA coverage
The OSHA Law covers most of the private sector employers and their workers, as well as some employers and public sector workers in 50 states and territories and certain jurisdictions under federal authority. These jurisdictions include the Districts of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Wake Island, Johnston Island and Continental Outer Landlands as defined in the Overseas Continental Land Act.
Private sector entrepreneur
OSHA covers most private sector companies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and other US jurisdictions - either directly through federal OSHA or through OSHA-approved state plans.
The state plan is a OSHA approved occupational safety and health program operated by each state, not a federal OSHA. Federal OSHA approves and monitors all state plans and provides as much as fifty percent of the funds for each program. State-run health and safety programs must be at least as effective as federal OSHA programs.
The following 22 states or territories have OSHA-approved country programs: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee , Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.
Federal OSHA provides coverage to specific workplaces exclusively excluded from state plans - for example, working in the maritime industry or military bases.
State and local governments
Workers in state and local government agencies are not covered by federal OSHA, but have OSH Act protection if they work in countries that have OSHA-approved state programs. OSHA rules also allow countries and territories to develop plans that only cover public sector workers (state and local governments). In this case, private sector workers and employers remain under the federal OSHA jurisdiction. Five additional countries and one US territory have OSHA approving state plans that cover only public sector workers: Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and the Virgin Islands.
Federal government agency
OSHA protection applies to all federal agents. Section 19 of the OSH Act leaves the heads of federal agencies responsible for providing safe and healthy working conditions for their workers. OSHA performs a federal inspection facility in response to a worker's report on hazards and under programs targeting dangerous federal workplaces.
Federal agencies must have health and safety programs that meet the same standards as private companies. OSHA issued a "virtual fine" to federal agencies - after the inspection in which violations were found, OSHA issued a press release stating the size of the fine if a federal agency is a private company. Under the 1998 amendment, the OSHA Law includes the US Postal Service similar to any private sector enterprise.
Not covered under OSHA Act
Entrepreneur; immediate family member of the agricultural company; and the dangers at work are governed by other federal agents (eg, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Department of Energy, or Coast Guard).
Rights and responsibilities under OSHA law
Employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace.
By law, employers must provide their workers with workplaces that are not seriously hazardous and must comply with all OSHA safety and health standards. Entrepreneurs must find and improve safety and health concerns. OSHA further requires that employers should first try to eliminate or mitigate harm by making decent changes in working conditions rather than relying on personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, or earplugs. Switching to safer chemicals, attaching processes to trap hazardous fumes, or using a ventilation system to clear the air are examples of effective ways to eliminate or reduce risk.
Entrepreneurs should also:
- Inform workers about chemical hazards through training, labels, alarms, color coded systems, chemical information sheets, and other methods.
- Provide workers with safety training in the language and vocabulary they can understand.
- Keep accurate records of occupational injuries and diseases.
- Perform testing at work, such as air sampling, as required by some OSHA standards.
- Provide personal protective equipment required at no cost to workers. (Employers must pay for most types of personal protective equipment required.)
- Provide a hearing exam or other medical tests when required by OSHA standards.
- Post the OSHA quote and annually post summary data on injuries and illnesses when workers can see it.
- Notify OSHA within eight hours of death at work. Notify OSHA within 24 hours of all work-related hospitalizations, all amputations, and all eye losses (1-800-321-OSHA [6742]).
- Show clearly OSHA official Occupational Safety and Health - This is a Legal poster that defines rights and responsibilities under the OSH Law.
- Does not retaliate or discriminate against workers for exercising their rights under the law, including their right to report work-related injuries or illness.
Workers have the right to:
- Working conditions that do not pose a serious risk of harm.
- File a secret complaint with OSHA for their workplace to be inspected.
- Receive information and training on hazards, methods to prevent hazards, and OSHA standards applicable to their workplace. Training should be done in the language and vocabulary workers can understand.
- Receive copies of work-related injury and occupational diseases that occur in their workplace.
- Receive copies of the results of tests and monitoring conducted to find and measure hazards in their workplace.
- Receive copies of their workplace medical records.
- Participate in the OSHA inspection and speak privately with the inspector.
- File a complaint to OSHA if they have been reprimanded or discriminated against by their employer as a result of requesting an examination or exercising their other rights under the OSH Law.
- File a complaint if punished or returned for acting as a "complainant" under 21 additional federal laws to which OSHA has jurisdiction.
Temporary workers should be treated like permanent employees. Personnel agencies and host companies share mutual accountability of temporary workers. Accordingly, both entities are bound to comply with workplace health and safety requirements and to ensure workers' safety and health. OSHA may detain the host and the temporary employer who is liable for violations of any conditions.
Health and safety standards
The Occupational Safety and Health Act gives OSHA the authority to issue health and safety regulations. These regulations include limits on exposure to hazardous chemicals, employee access to hazard information, requirements for the use of personal protective equipment, and requirements for preventing falls and hazards from operating hazardous equipment.
OSHA Construction, General Industrial, Marine and Agriculture standards are currently designed to protect workers from serious dangers. Standard OSHA examples include requirements for employers to: provide fall protection such as a safety/line or safety fence; prevent cave-in excavation; prevent exposure to some infectious diseases; ensuring the safety of workers entering limited space; prevent exposure to hazardous chemicals; placing guards on dangerous machines; provide respirator or other safety equipment; and provide training for certain hazardous jobs in language and vocabulary that workers can understand.
OSHA establishes permissible exposure limits (PELs) to protect workers against the health effects of exposure to hazardous substances, including limits of airborne airborne harmful chemicals. Most OSHA OSHAs were issued soon after the adoption of the OSH Law in 1970. Efforts to exclude tighter PELs have been blocked by industry litigation; thus, the limit has not been updated since 1971. The agency has issued non-binding exposure limits and limits jobs that might better protect workers.
Employers must also comply with the General Duty Clause of the OSH Act. This paragraph obliges employers to keep their workplace free from seriously recognized danger and is generally quoted when no specific OSHA standard applies to hazards.
In its first year of operation, OSHA was permitted to adopt regulations based on guidelines established by certain standards organizations, such as the American Government's Industrial Hygiene Assembly Conference, without going through all the requirements of typical regulatory arrangements. OSHA is authorized to disseminate standards that define methods that are legally mandatory to protect their workers from harm. Before OSHA can issue standards, it has to go through a very broad and lengthy process that includes massive public engagement, notifications and comments. The agency must demonstrate that there are significant risks to workers and that there are measures that employers can take to protect their workers.
In 2000, OSHA issued an ergonomic standard. In March 2001, Congress voted to revoke the standard through the Congressional Review Act. The retraction, one of the main parts of legislation signed by President George W. Bush, is the only example that Congress has succeeded in using the Congressional Review Act to block a rule.
Since 2001, OSHA has issued the following standards:
- 2002: Exit Routes, Emergency Action Plan, and Fire Prevention Plan
- 2004: Commercial Diving Operation
- 2004: Fire Protection at Shipyards
- 2006: Occupational Exposure to Chromium Hexavalent
- 2006: Defined Safety Factors for Respiratory Protection Tools
- 2007: Standard Electrical Installation
- 2007: Payments of Personal Protective Equipment (Clarification)
- 2008: Vertical Tandem Retrieval
- 2010: Derek and Derek in Construction
- 2010: Working Conditions in Shipyard
- 2012: GHS Update to Hazard Communication Standard
- 2014: Record Retention and New Reporting for Entrepreneurs
- 2014: Revisions for Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution; Electrical Protective Equipment
- 2016: Occupational Exposures Against Inhaled Silica Crystal
- 2016: Improve Injury and Illness Tracking in the Workplace
- 2016: Update General Industry, Surface Current and Fall Protection Standards
Enforcement
OSHA is responsible for upholding its standards on regulated entities. The Safety and Health Compliance Officer conducts inspections and assesses penalties for violation of the regulations. Inspections are planned for workplaces in highly hazardous industries. Inspections can also be triggered by deaths at work, some inpatient, worker complaints, or referrals.
OSHA is a small institution, given the size of its mission: with its state partners, OSHA has about 2,400 inspectors covering over 8 million workplaces in which 130 million workers are employed. In Fiscal Year 2012 (ending Sept. 30), OSHA and its partner countries conduct more than 83,000 workplace inspections across the United States - only a small fraction of national works. According to a report by AFL-CIO, it will require OSHA 129 years to examine all workplaces under its jurisdiction.
Enforcement plays an important part in OSHA's efforts to reduce workplace injuries, illness, and death. Inspections are initiated without prior notice, conducted using on-site or telephone and facsimile investigations, conducted by trained and scheduled compliance officers based on the following priorities [highest to lowest]: impending danger; catastrophe - death or hospitalization; employee complaints and referrals; targeted inspections - special hazards, high injury rates; and follow-up examination.
Current workers or their representatives may file a complaint and ask OSHA to check their workplace if they believe that there is a serious danger or that their employers are not following OSHA standards. Workers and their representatives are entitled to request an examination without OSHA notifying their employer who filed a complaint. It is a violation of the OSH Act for employers to dismiss, transfer, transfer or otherwise discriminate against workers for filing a complaint or using other OSHA rights.
When an inspector finds a violation of OSHA standards or serious harm, OSHA may issue quotes and fines. Excerpts include methods that employers can use to fix problems and dates when corrective action must be completed.
OSHA fines are very low compared to other government agencies. They grew up for the first time since 1990 on August 2, 2016 to comply with the Federal Acceptance of Federal Federal Disability Adjustment Act 2015 passed by Congress to advance the effectiveness of civilian monetary penalties and to safeguard their deterrent effect. The new law directs agencies to adjust their penalties for inflation each year. The maximum OSHA fines for serious offenses are $ 12,500 and the maximum penalty for recurring or intentional violations is $ 125,000. In determining the number of proposed penalties, OSHA should consider the gravity of the alleged violation and the size of the entrepreneur from the business, goodwill and previous history of violation. The entrepreneur has the right to oppose any part of the quotation, including whether the violation actually exists. Workers are only entitled to challenge deadlines where problems must be resolved. Quotation requests cited by the Independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).
OSHA conducts enforcement activities through 10 regional offices and 90 regional offices. OSHA regional offices are located in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, metropolitan areas Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Recording retention requirements
Tracking and investigating workplace injuries and illnesses plays an important role in preventing future injuries and illnesses. Under the OSHA Regulatory Regulations, specific employers covered by the high hazard industry are required to prepare and maintain records of serious work-related injuries and illnesses. This information is important for employers, workers and OSHA in evaluating workplace safety, understanding industrial hazards, and applying workers protection to reduce and eliminate hazards.
Employers with more than ten employees and whose companies are not classified as partially exempt industries should record serious work-related injuries and illnesses using OSHA Forms 300, 300A and 301. Recording forms, terms and information on exemptions are on the OSHA website.
Whistleblower Protection
OSHA enacts whistleblower provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and 21 other laws protecting workers reporting violations of airlines, commercial aircraft carriers, consumer products, the environment, financial reform, food security, health care reform, nuclear, pipelines, public transport agency laws, maritime and securities. Over the years, OSHA has been responsible for enforcing this law protecting workers' rights to speak without fear of retaliation, regardless of the relationship of this law to safety and health issues.
Compliance help
OSHA has developed several training, compliance, and health and safety recognition programs throughout its history.
The OSHA Training Institute, which trains government and private sector health and safety personnel, began in 1972. In 1978, it began a grant program, now called the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, to train workers and employers to identify and reduce places work. danger.
The Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) recognizes employers and workers in private industry and federal agencies who have implemented effective health and safety management programs and maintain a national average rate of injury and disease for their respective industries. In VPP, management, labor, and OSHA work cooperatively and proactively to prevent fatalities, injuries, and illnesses through a system focused on: hazard prevention and control, workplace analysis, training, and management commitment and employee engagement.
OSHA On-site Consultation Program offers free and confidential advice to small and medium enterprises in all states across the country, with priority given to high-risk work units. Each year, responding to requests from small entrepreneurs seeking to create or improve their health and safety management programs, OSHA's On-site Consultation Program conducted over 29,000 visits to small businesses covering over 1.5 million workers nationwide. The consulting services are in a separate place from law enforcement and do not result in penalties or citations. Consultants from state institutions or universities work with employers to identify hazards in the workplace, advise on compliance with OSHA standards, and assist in establishing health and safety management programs.
Under the consultation program, certain exemplary employers may request participation in the Health and Safety Achievement (SHARP)
OSHA also provides compliance assistance through its national office and territory. Through hundreds of publications in various languages, the website's health and safety topics pages, and through the OSHA compliance assistance staff provide information to employers and workers about the specific OSHA hazards and rights and responsibilities.
Effects
A 2012 study in Science found that OSHA's OSHA safety inspections randomly led to a "9.4% decrease in injury rate" and a "26% reduction in injury costs" for the inspected company. The study found "there is no evidence that these improvements come at the expense of jobs, sales, credit ratings, or corporate survival."
Controversy
There is much debate about OSHA regulations and enforcement policies that revolve around regulatory and enforcement costs, versus the obvious benefits in reducing worker injury, illness and death. A 1995 study of some OSHA standards by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) found that OSHA relies "generally on methods that provide a credible basis for important determinations for rule-making". Although finding that OSHA findings and estimates "are subject to strong reviews and challenges", it states that this is reasonable because "stakeholders and experts involved in regulatory development have different visions".
OSHA has been heavily criticized for the ineffectiveness of its punishment, especially its criminal penalties. Maximum penalty is a minor offense with a maximum of 6 months in prison. In response to criticism, OSHA, in conjunction with the Justice Department, has pursued several high profile criminal prosecutions for violations under the Act, and has announced a joint enforcement initiative between OSHA and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has the ability to issue distant fines higher than OSHA. Meanwhile, Democrat Congress, unions and security advocates and public health seek to revise the OSH Law to make it a crime with a much higher penalty for committing a deliberate violation that led to the death of a worker. Some local prosecutors accuse corporate executives of massacres and other crimes when criminal negligence causes the death of a worker.
Investigation of the New York Times in 2003 showed that over a period of 20 years from 1982 to 2002, 2,197 workers died in 1,242 incidents in which OSHA investigators concluded that employers had deliberately violated safety laws. In 93% of these deaths arising from intentional violations, OSHA makes no reference to the US Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. The Investigation found that OSHA has failed to pursue demands "even when employers have been quoted earlier for the same security breach" and even in cases where many workers died. In interviews, OSHA officials today and earlier said that the low level of criminal enforcement is the result of "bureaucracy working at every level to thwart criminal referrals... who fail to reward, and sometimes punish, those who are too pushy for prosecution" and that "aggressive enforcement [was] suffocated by an endless layer of review.
OSHA has also been criticized for taking too long to develop new regulations. For example, speaking about OSHA under George W. Bush's presidency on the specific issue of a flammable dust explosion, the appointment of Chemical Safety Council Carolyn Merritt said: "The basic disappointment is the attitude of no new rules They do not want industry to be pestered In some cases, industry must be pestered to comply. "
See also
- Title 29 of the Federal Regulatory Code
- American Society of Safety Engineers
- Construction site security
- Ergonomics
- Voluntary Protection Program Association Program
- Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
- MIOSHA
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
- National Security Council
- Occupational safety and health
- Work accident
- OSHA Oregon
- Flexibility Settings Act
- US. Agency for Security Investigation and Chemical Hazards
References
- Brief Department of Labor, FY2013
External links
- Official website
- OSHA - Current 29 CFR Books in Digital Format
- OSHA - List of Highly Hazardous Chemicals
- OSHA in the Federal List
- Text of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
- The short film "The Story of OSHA (1980)" is available for free download on the Internet Archive
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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