Ensuring Safe and Productive Workplaces
The laws, regulations, and programs designed to provide protections for workers may need to be revised to reflect significant changes in the demographics of the U.S. workforce and changes in the nature of work itself. Now more than ever, it is important to find the right balance between ensuring the safety and health of workers and employers’ needs to increase productivity in an increasingly competitive global environment.
- Industries such as construction, home health care, food services, and meat and poultry processing have had large increases in the number of immigrant workers, and membership in organized labor has declined. In addition, some industries, such as construction and mining, face inherent long-term challenges that threaten the safety and health of workers. Injury and illness rates for most industries have declined in recent years, but work-related fatalities in some groups and industries have risen
Highlights of GAO-08-424 (PDF), Highlights of GAO-05-96 (PDF) - The employer/employee relationship defined in the Fair Labor Standards
Act enacted in 1938 does not cover workers classified as independent contractors
or many workers in temporary employment arrangements, which are increasingly
replacing traditional work arrangements.
Highlights of GAO-08-962T (PDF), Highlights of GAO-07-859T (PDF)
^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) should adjust
its criteria for selecting meat and poultry plants for inspection to include
those that have had large reductions in their injury and illness rates over
time. The agency should also change the way it collects data on plants in
order to make it easier to measure the impact of its programs.
Highlights of GAO-05-96 (PDF) - The Mine Safety and Health Administration should improve its oversight of the enforcement and approval of underground coal mines' emergency response plans; improve training; ensure transparency in penalty determinations; and share information with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in developing guidance for mine operators on how to meet recent requirements to provide postaccident wireless communications systems.
Highlights of GAO-08-424 (PDF) - OSHA should conduct targeted inspections of federal work sites; track violations disputed by federal agencies and ensure that unresolved violations are reported to the President, evaluate federal agencies as required, and assess the effectiveness of their safety programs.
Highlights of GAO-06-379 (PDF) - To better plan and conduct Fair Labor Standards Act compliance activities, Labor should evaluate data on complaints filed by workers; obtain and use input from external stakeholders in its planning efforts; incorporate data from its studies in these planning efforts; and leverage existing tools as well as establish, consistently maintain, and report on its performance.
Highlights of GAO-08-962T (PDF)
^ Back to topKey Reports
- Fair Labor Standards Act: Better Use of Available Resources and Consistent Reporting Could Improve Compliance
- GAO-08-962T, July 15, 2008
- Summary (HTML) Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 28 pages) Accessible Text Recommendations (HTML)
- Mine Safety: Additional Guidance and Oversight of Mines' Emergency Response Plans Would Improve the Safety of Underground Coal Miners
- GAO-08-424, April 8, 2008
- Summary (HTML) Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 65 pages) Accessible Text Recommendations (HTML)
- Workplace Safety and Health: OSHA Could Improve Federal Agencies' Safety Programs with a More Strategic Approach to Its Oversight
- GAO-06-379, April 21, 2006
- Summary (HTML) Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 67 pages) Accessible Text Recommendations (HTML)
- Workplace Safety and Health: Safety in the Meat and Poultry Industry, While Improving, Could Be Further Strengthened
- GAO-05-96, January 12, 2005
- Summary (HTML) Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 75 pages) Accessible Text Recommendations (HTML)
