All About OSHA
U.S. Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA 3302-06N 2006
This booklet provides a general overview of basic topics related to OSHA and how it operates. Information provided does not determine compliance responsibilities under OSHA standards or the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act).
Because interpretations and enforcement
policy may change over time, you should consult the agency
for the most up-to-date information. Much of it is
available at the OSHA website at: www.osha.gov. The
website also includes locations and phone numbers for OSHA
offices around the country. If you do not have access to
the website, call (800) 321-OSHA (6742). This information
is available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.
Voice phone: (202) 6931999; teletypewriter (TTY) number:
(877) 889-5627.
Material in this publication is in the
public domain and may be reproduced, fully or partially,
without permission. Source credit is requested but not
required.
Contents
[OSHA's Mission]
[Introduction]
[OSHA Coverage]
[State Programs]
[Standards & Guidance]
[The Standards-Setting Process]
[Reporting]
[OSHA Enforcement Activities]
[Enhanced Enforcement Program]
[The OSHA Whistleblower Program]
[Filing a Complaint]
[Outreach, Education and Training, and Compliance Assistance]
[OSHA's Cooperative Programs]
[Business Feedback]
[OSHA National Office Directorates]
OSHA's Mission
Employers are responsible for providing a
safe and healthful workplace for their employees. OSHA's
role is to assure the safety and health of America's
workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing
training, outreach, and education; establishing
partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement
in workplace safety and health.
OSHA establishes and enforces protective
standards and reaches out to employers and employees
through technical assistance and consultation programs.
OSHA and its state partners have approximately 2,400
inspectors and about 550 state consultants, plus complaint
discrimination investigators, engineers, physicians,
educators, standard writers, and other technical and
support personnel spread over more than 130 offices
throughout the country.
OSHA works to assure the safety and health
of all of America's working men and women. Most employees
in the nation come under OSHA's jurisdiction. Other users
and recipients of OSHA services include: occupational
safety and health professionals, the academic community,
lawyers, journalists, and personnel of other government
entities.
Part of OSHA's mission is to provide
assistance to employers to reduce or eliminate workplace
hazards. OSHA provides a vast array of informational and
training materials focusing on numerous safety and health
hazards in the workplace.
For more information, visit OSHA's website at www.osha.gov.
OSHA stands ready to help both employers and employees in ensuring a safe and healthy workplace.
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Introduction
The Occupational Safety and Health Act
of 1970 created the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration to help employers and employees reduce
injuries, illnesses and deaths on the job in America. Since
then, workplace fatalities have been cut by more than 60
percent and occupational injury and illness rates have
declined 40 percent. At the same time, U.S. employment has
more than doubled and now includes over 115 million workers
at 7.2 million worksites.
OSHA provides national leadership in
occupational safety and health. The agency seeks to find
and share the most effective ways to help prevent worker
fatalities, and prevent workplace injuries and
illnesses.
When employees stay whole and healthy,
businesses also benefit. They experience lower workers'
compensation insurance costs, reduced medical expenditures,
decreased payout for return-towork programs, fewer faulty
products, and lower costs for job accommodations for
injured workers. There are also indirect benefits such as
increased productivity, lower costs for training
replacement workers and decreased costs for overtime.
OSHA's impact
Since OSHA's creation in 1970, the nation
has made substantial progress in occupational safety and
health. OSHA and its many partners in the public and
private sectors have for example:
- Cut the work-related fatality rate to historic lows for 2002 to 2004;
- From 2003 to 2004, reduced the number of workplace injuries and illnesses by 4 percent and lost workday case rates dropped by 5.8 percent in that same period;
- Virtually eliminated brown lung disease in the textile industry;
- In 2005, OSHA conducted close to 39,000 inspections and issued just over 85,000 citations for violations;
- In 2004, the Consultation Program made over 31,000 visits to employers.
OSHA's continuing role
Significant hazards and unsafe conditions still exist in U.S. workplaces. Each year:
- Almost 5,200 Americans die from workplace injuries in the private sector;
- Perhaps as many as 50,000 employees die from illnesses in which workplace exposures were a contributing factor;
- Nearly 4.3 million people suffer non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses; and
- The cost of occupational injuries and illnesses totals more than $156 billion.
What OSHA does
OSHA uses three basic strategies, authorized
by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, to help
employers and employees reduce injuries, illnesses, and
deaths on the job:
- Strong, fair, and effective enforcement;
- education, and compliance assistance; and
- Partnerships, Alliances and other cooperative and voluntary programs.
Based on these
strategies, OSHA conducts a wide range of programs and
activities to promote workplace safety and health. The
agency:
- Encourages employers and employees to reduce workplace hazards and to implement new safety and health management systems or improve existing programs;
- Develops mandatory job safety and health standards and enforces them through worksite inspections, and, sometimes, by imposing citations, penalties, or both;
- Promotes safe and healthful work environments through cooperative programs including the Voluntary Protection Programs, OSHA Strategic Partnerships, and Alliances;
- Establishes responsibilities and rights for employers and employees to achieve better safety and health conditions;
- Supports the development of innovative ways of dealing with workplace hazards;
- Establishes requirements for injury and illness recordkeeping by employers, and for employer monitoring of certain occupational illnesses;
- Establishes training programs to increase the competence of occupational safety and health personnel;
- Provides technical and compliance assistance, and training and education to help employers reduce worker accidents and injuries;
- Works in partnership with states that operate their own occupational safety and health programs; and
- Supports the Consultation Programs offered by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
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OSHA Coverage
The OSH Act covers private sector employers
and their employees in the 50 states and certain
territories and jurisdictions under federal authority.
Those jurisdictions include the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam,
Northern Mariana Islands, Wake Island, Johnston Island, and
the Outer Continental Shelf Lands as defined in the
Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
The OSH Act covers employers and employees either directly through Federal OSHA or through an OSHA-approved state program.
Who is not covered
The OSH Act does not cover:
- The self-employed;
- Members of immediate family of farm employers that do not employ outside workers;
- Worker conditions that are regulated under worker safety or health requirements of other federal agencies;
- Employees of state and local governments; some states have their own occupational safety and health plans that cover these workers.
Federal worker coverage
Section 19 of the OSH Act makes federal
agency heads responsible for providing safe and healthful
working conditions for their employees. OSHA conducts
federal workplace inspections in response to employee
reports of hazards.
The OSH Act also requires federal agencies
to comply with standards consistent with those for private
sector employers. Under a 1998 amendment to the Act, it
covers the U.S. Postal Service the same as any private
sector employer.
State and local government worker coverage
OSHA provisions cover the private sector
only. However, some states have their own OSHA-approved
occupational safety and health programs. These state
programs cover state and local government employees.
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State Programs
State safety and health programs
State plans are OSHA-approved job safety
and health programs operated by individual states instead
of Federal OSHA. The OSH Act encourages states to develop
and operate their own job safety and health plans and
precludes state enforcement of OSHA standards unless the
state has an approved plan. OSHA approves and monitors all
state plans. The state plans must be at least as effective
as Federal OSHA requirements.
State plans covering the private sector
also must cover state and local government employees. OSHA
rules also permit states and territories to develop plans
that cover only public sector (state and local government)
employees. In these cases, private sector employment
remains under Federal OSHA jurisdiction. Twenty-two states
and territories operate complete plans and four cover only
the public sector. These states are listed below and on the
OSHA website at www.osha.gov.
State program coverage
States with approved plans cover most
private sector employees as well as state and local
government workers in the state. Federal OSHA continues to
cover federal employees and certain other employees
specifically excluded from a state's plan; for example, in
some states those who work in maritime industries and on
military bases.
The following states have OSHA-approved State Plans:
- Alaska
- Arizona
- California
- Connecticut
- Hawaii
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- New Jersey
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- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Puerto Rico
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virgin Islands
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wyoming
|
NOTE: The Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Virgin Islands plans cover public sector (state and local government) employment only.
[Table of Contents]
Standards & Guidance
Requirements
In general, OSHA standards require that employers:
- Maintain conditions or adopt practices reasonably necessary and appropriate to protect workers on the job;
- Be familiar with and comply with standards applicable to their establishments; and
- Ensure that employees have and use personal protective equipment when required for safety and health.
Hazards addressed
OSHA issues standards for a wide variety of workplace hazards, including:
|
- Toxic substances;
- Harmful physical agents;
- Electrical hazards;
- Fall hazards;
- Trenching hazards;
- Hazardous waste;
- Infectious diseases;
- Fire and explosion hazards;
- Dangerous atmospheres;
- Machine hazards; and
- Confined spaces.
|
In addition, where there are no specific
OSHA standards, employers must comply with the OSH Act's
"general duty clause. " The general duty clause, Section
5(a)(1), requires that each employer "furnish ... a place
of employment which [is] free from recognized hazards that
are causing or are likely to cause death or serious
physical harm to his employees. "
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The Standards-Setting Process
Deciding to develop a standard
OSHA can begin standards-setting procedures on its own initiative or in response to petitions from other parties, including:
- The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS);
- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH);
- State and local governments;
- Nationally recognized standards-producing organizations and employer or labor representatives; and
- Any other interested parties.
Each spring and fall, the Department of
Labor publishes in the Federal Register a list of all
regulations that have work underway. The Regulatory Agenda
provides a schedule for the development of standards and
regulations so that employers, employees, and other
interested parties can know when they are expected.
How OSHA develops standards
OSHA publishes its intention to propose, amend, or revoke a standard in the Federal Register, either as:
- A Request for Information or an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or announcement of a meeting to solicit information to be used in drafting a proposal; or
- A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which sets out the proposed new rule's requirements and provides a specific time for the public to respond.
These actions are posted online at
www.regulations.gov. Interested parties may submit written
information, comments and evidence. In addition, OSHA may
also schedule a public hearing to consider various points
of view.
After reviewing public comments, evidence and testimony, OSHA publishes:
- The full text of any standard amended or adopted and the date it becomes effective, along with an explanation of the standard and the reasons for implementing it; or
- A determination that no standard or amendment is necessary.
Input from other government agencies
Other government agencies can recommend
standards to OSHA. The OSH Act established the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the
Department of HHS as the research agency for occupational
safety and health. NIOSH conducts research on various
safety and health problems, provides technical assistance
to OSHA, and recommends standards for OSHA's consideration.
(For more information, call (800) 35-NIOSH or visit the
agency's website at www.cdc.gov/niosh).
Input from small business
The Small Business Regulatory
Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA), gives small
businesses help in understanding and complying with OSHA
regulations and allows them to have more of a voice in
developing new regulations. Under SBREFA, OSHA must:
- Produce Small Entity Compliance Guides for some agency rules;
- Be responsive to small business inquiries about complying with the agency's regulations;
- Have a penalty reduction policy for small businesses;
- Involve small businesses in developing proposed rules expected to significantly affect a large number of small entities through Small Business Advocacy Review Panels; and
- Give small businesses the opportunity to challenge in court agency rules or regulations that they believe will adversely affect them.
For more information, visit OSHA's website at www.osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/sbrefa.html.
Advisory Groups
OSHA has several standing advisory
committees and ad hoc advisory committees that
advise the agency on safety and health issues. These
committees include representatives of management, labor,
and state agencies as well as one or more designees of the
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Members also
may include representatives of occupational safety and
health professions and the general public.
The two standing, or statutory, advisory committees are:
- The National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH), which advises, consults with, and makes recommendations to the U.S. Secretaries of Labor and HHS on matters regarding administration of the OSH Act; and
- The Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH), which advises the Secretary of Labor on construction safety and health standards and other matters.
Other continuing advisory committees include:
- The Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH), which advises the Secretary of Labor on all aspects of federal agency safety and health; and
- The Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (MACOSH), which advises the Secretary of Labor on workplace safety and health programs, policies and standards in the maritime industry.
OSHA may occasionally form short-term advisory committees to advise the agency on specific issues.
Guidelines versus standards
A guideline is a tool to assist employers
in recognizing and controlling hazards. It is voluntary and
not enforceable under the OSH Act. Failure to implement a
guideline is not itself a violation of the OSH Act's
general duty clause.
Guidelines can be developed quickly and can
be changed easily as new information becomes available with
scientific advances. Guidelines make it easy for employers
to adopt innovative programs to suit their workplaces.
[Table of Contents]
Reporting
OSHA's reporting requirements
All employers must report to OSHA within eight hours of learning about:
- The death of any employee from a work-related incident; and
- The in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees as a result of a work-related incident.
In addition, employers must report all
fatal heart attacks that occur at work. Deaths from motor
vehicle accidents on public streets (except those in a
construction work zone) and in accidents on commercial
airplanes, trains, subways or buses do not need to be
reported.
These reports may be made by telephone or
in person to the nearest OSHA area office listed at
www.osha.gov or by calling OSHA's toll-free number, (800)
321-OSHA (6742).
Employers may be subject to other reporting requirements in other OSHA standards as well.
OSHA's recordkeeping requirements
The Occupational Safety and Health Act
of 1970 (OSH Act) requires covered employers to
prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and
illnesses. OSHA is responsible for administering the
recordkeeping system established by the Act. The OSH Act
and recordkeeping regulations provide specific recording
and reporting requirements which comprise the framework for
the nationwide occupational safety and health recording
system.
Under this system, it is essential that
data recorded by employers be uniform and accurate to
assure the consistency and validity of the statistical data
which is used by OSHA for many purposes, including
inspection targeting, performance measurement, standards
development, resource allocation, Voluntary Protection
Program (VPP) and Safety and Health Recognition Program
(SHARP) eligibility, and "low-hazard" industry exemptions. The data will also aid
employers, employees, compliance officers and consultants
in analyzing the safety and health environment at the
employer's establishment.
[Table of Contents]
OSHA Enforcement Activities
Carrying out our mission
Enforcement plays an important part in
OSHA's efforts to reduce workplace injuries, illnesses, and
fatalities. Through OSHA's Site-Specific Targeting and
Enhanced Enforcement programs, the agency sends a clear
message that it takes its mission seriously. When the
agency finds employers who fail to uphold their employee
safety and health responsibilities, OSHA deals with them
strongly.
In addition, OSHA administers and supports
a comprehensive field occupational safety and health
guidance and compliance assistance effort within a variety
of industry sectors including general industry, maritime,
construction, and health. OSHA also administers and
evaluates occupational safety and health programs for all
federal agencies, assisting them in providing safe and
healthful working conditions for their employees.
OSHA also sets rules for the Federal
Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health,
administers an anti-discrimination program to protect the
rights of employees to seek safe and healthful working
conditions, and operates the cargo gear accreditation
program for certifying vessels' cargo gear and shore-based
material handling devices.
OSHA carries out its enforcement activities
through its 10 regional offices and 90 area offices. OSHA's
regional offices are located in Boston, New York City,
Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City,
Denver, San Francisco and Seattle.
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Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP)
- OSHA's Enhanced Enforcement Program targets employers who have a history of the most severe safety and health violations.
- This approach helps OSHA focus on employers who willfully and repeatedly expose their employees to the most serious hazards, refuse to correct violations and violate their safety and health agreements.
- The EEP's concentration on high gravity violators strengthens the agency's enforcement program and enhances the focus on
corporate-wide offenders.
[Table of Contents]
The OSHA Whistleblower Program
To help ensure that employees are free to
participate in safety and health activities, Section 11(c)
of the OSH Act prohibits any person from discharging or in
any manner retaliating or discriminating against any
employee because the employee has exercised rights under
the Act. These rights include complaining to OSHA and
seeking an OSHA inspection, participating in an OSHA
inspection, and participating or testifying in any
proceeding related to an OSHA inspection.
"Discrimination" can include the following actions:
- Firing or laying off
- Blacklisting
- Demoting
- Denying overtime or promotion
- Disciplining
- Denial of benefits
- Failure to hire or rehire
- Intimidation
- Reassignment affecting promotion prospects
- Reducing pay or hours
To file a complaint under Section 11(c),
contact the nearest OSHA office within 30 days of the
discrimination. Discrimination complaints cannot be filed
online.
OSHA also administers the whistleblowing
provisions of thirteen other laws protecting employees from
retaliation for reporting violations of various trucking,
airline, nuclear, pipeline, environmental, and corporate
fraud and securities laws. Each statute has its own
deadline and form of filing. For details, see
www.osha.gov/dep/oia/whistleblower or contact OSHA.
[Table of Contents]
Filing a Complaint
Hazardous workplace complaints
If your workplace has unsafe or unhealthful
working conditions, you may want to file a complaint. Often
the best and fastest way to get it corrected is to notify
your supervisor or employer.
Employees also may file a complaint by
phone, mail, e-mail, or fax with the nearest OSHA office
and request an inspection. You may also ask OSHA not to
reveal your name. To file a complaint, call (800) 321-OSHA
(6742) or contact the nearest OSHA regional, area, state
plan, or consultation office listed at www.osha.gov. The
teletypewriter (TTY) number is (877) 889-5627.
You can also file a complaint online. Most
online complaints may be resolved informally over the phone
with your employer. Written, signed complaints submitted to
OSHA area or state plan offices are more likely to result
in onsite OSHA inspections. Complaints from employees in
states with an OSHA-approved state plan will be forwarded
to the appropriate state plan for response. If you are
concerned about confidentiality, you should file your complaint from either your
home computer or one in your local library.
Download the OSHA complaint form, complete
it, and then fax or mail it to your local OSHA office or
simply contact your local OSHA office to receive a copy of
the complaint form. Include your name, address, and
telephone number so that we can contact you. (NOTE: To view
and print the OSHA complaint form, you must have the Adobe
Acrobat Reader on your computer.)
Discrimination complaints
If you believe that your employer has
discriminated against you because you exercised your safety
and health rights, contact your local OSHA office right
away. Most discrimination complaints fall under the OSH
Act, which gives you only 30 days to report discrimination.
Some of the other laws have complaint-filing deadlines that
differ from OSHA's, so be sure to check. For complete
information visit www.osha.gov.
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Outreach, Education and Training, and Compliance Assistance
Outreach materials on OSHA's website
OSHA's website provides extensive
information about the agency as well as standards,
interpretations, directives, technical advisors, compliance
assistance, and additional information. The site also
includes electronic assistance tools, such as eTools and
interactive Expert Advisors, information on specific health
and safety topics, videos, and other information for
employers and employees. The OSHA website's address is
www.osha.gov.
In addition, OSHA's website includes several special features:
- Spanish-language pages that provide workplace safety and health information in Spanish;
- A Small Business page, designed to increase awareness among small business owners about their responsibilities under the OSH Act, and resources to help them at www.osha.gov/smallbusiness.
- A Compliance Assistance page that provides a portal to OSHA's compliance assistance resources and information on OSHA's cooperative programs.
- A Workers page that explains employees' rights and responsibilities under the OSH Act.
- A Teen Workers page that addresses safety and health issues for employees under the age of 18.
- An OSHA Training Institute Education Centers page that provides information such as course listings, events, FAQs and a list of all the Education Centers in each OSHA region.
These and other web-based resources are available at www.osha.gov.
OSHA Training and Education
OSHA's Training Institute in Arlington
Heights, IL, provides basic and advanced courses in safety
and health for federal and state compliance officers, state
consultants, federal agency personnel and private sector
employers, employees and their representatives.
The OSHA Training Institute also has
established OSHA Training Institute Education Centers (not
funded by OSHA) to address the increased demand for its
courses from the private sector and from other federal
agencies. These centers are nonprofit colleges,
universities and other organizations that have been
selected after a competition for participation in the
program.
The education centers help administer OSHA's
Outreach Training Program - the agency's primary way to
train workers in the basics of occupational safety and
health. Those who complete a one-week OSHA training course
are authorized to teach 10-hour or 30-hour courses in
construction or general industry safety and health
standards. These individuals go on to train thousands more
students each year.
OSHA also provides funds to nonprofit
organizations, through grants, to conduct workplace
training and education in subjects where OSHA believes
there is a lack of workplace training. Grants are awarded
annually. Grant recipients are expected to contribute 20
percent of the total grant cost.
For more information on grants, training
and education, contact the OSHA Training Institute, Office
of Training and Education, 2020 South Arlington Heights
Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60005, (847) 297-4810 or see
"Training" on OSHA's website at www.osha.gov.
Compliance assistance materials
OSHA's Compliance Assistance Specialists
provide general information about OSHA standards and
compliance assistance resources. They respond to requests
for help from a variety of groups, including small
businesses, trade associations, union locals and community
and faith-based groups. There is one Compliance Assistance
Specialist in each OSHA Area Office in states under federal
jurisdiction.
OSHA publications
OSHA has an extensive publications program.
The agency publishes booklets, fact sheets and cards
detailing various facets of OSHA policy and
regulations.
Many publications are now available in
Spanish as well as English to ensure that Spanish-speaking
employees also have access to important workplace safety
and health information.
All OSHA publications can be downloaded at
no cost from the agency's website at www.osha.gov. In
addition, most are available in hardcopy form, some at no
cost from OSHA and others for purchase from the U.S.
Government Printing Office. For a list of available
publications, visit www.osha.gov, call (800) 321-OSHA (6742), or fax to (202) 693-2498.
[Table of Contents]
OSHA's Cooperative Programs
Voluntary, cooperative relationships among
employers, employees, unions, and OSHA can be a useful
alternative to traditional OSHA enforcement and an
effective way to reduce employee deaths, injuries, and
illnesses. OSHA has several types of cooperative
programs:
- Alliance Program
- Consultation Program and the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP)
- OSHA Strategic Partnerships
- Voluntary Protection Programs
Alliance Program
OSHA's Alliance Program, established in
2002, enables organizations committed to workplace safety
and health to collaborate with OSHA to prevent injuries and
illnesses in the workplace. OSHA and its allies work
together to reach out to, educate, and lead the nation's
employers and their employees in improving and advancing
workplace safety and health.
Benefits of participating
There are many benefits to participating in an Alliance with OSHA. Through this program, organizations will:
- Build trusting, cooperative relationships with the agency;
- Network with others committed to workplace safety and health;
- Access resources to maximize employee safety and health protection; and
- Gain recognition as a proactive leader in safety and health.
Eligible groups
Alliances are open to a variety of groups, including:
- Trade or professional organizations;
- Businesses;
- Labor organizations;
- Educational institutions; and
- Government agencies.
In some cases, organizations may be
cooperating with OSHA for the first time. In others, they
may be building on existing relationships with the agency
that were developed through other cooperative programs such
as strategic partnerships, the Voluntary Protection
Programs, and consultation.
How Alliances work
Alliance agreements do not include an
enforcement component, such as an exemption from general
scheduled inspections or monitoring visits. Alliances are
also different from other cooperative programs because
their agreements are not worksite-based; instead they focus
on entire industries or hazards within industries. However,
OSHA and the participating organizations must define,
implement, and meet a set of short- and long-term goals
that fall into three categories:
- Training and education;
- Outreach and communication;
- Promoting the national dialogue on workplace safety and health.
After an Alliance is signed
OSHA and the program participants will form
an implementation team. The team, consisting of OSHA and
the organization's representatives, will develop strategies
and begin implementing programs or processes for meeting
the defined goals.
For more information about national
Alliances, contact OSHA's Office of Outreach Services and
Alliances at (202) 693-2340 or visit www.osha.gov/alliances. For information about regional or local
Alliances, contact the appropriate regional office listed
on the website at: www.osha.gov, or call (800) 321-OSHA (6742).
OSHA Consultation Service
OSHA's Consultation Service is a free
service that enables employers to identify potential
hazards at their worksites and ways to correct them,
improve their occupational safety and health management
systems, and even qualify for a one-year exemption from
routine OSHA inspection. The service is delivered by state
governments using well-trained professional staff. Most
consultations take place on-site, though limited services
away from the worksite are available.
OSHA's Consultation Service provides
on-site assistance in developing and implementing effective
workplace safety and health programs that emphasize
preventing employee injuries and illnesses. OSHA's
comprehensive consultation assistance includes an appraisal
of:
- Mechanical systems, physical work practices, and environmental hazards of the workplace; and
- Aspects of the employer's present job safety and health program. Employers also may receive training and education services as well as limited assistance away from the worksite.
Consultation assistance is available to
smaller employers (with fewer than 250 employees at a fixed
site and no more than 500 employees nationwide).
Consultation programs are funded largely by OSHA and run by
state agencies at no cost to the employer who requests
help. OSHA does not propose penalties or issue citations
for hazards identified by the consultant. The employer must
correct all serious hazards and potential safety and health
violations which the consultant identifies. However, if an
employer does not correct violations identified through
consultation assistance, the consultant may refer the
employer for a possible inspection. The employer's name and
firm as well as any information about the workplace will
not be routinely reported to OSHA enforcement staff.
SHARP
By working with the OSHA Consultation
Program, certain exemplary employers may request
participation in OSHA's Safety and Health Achievement
Recognition Program (SHARP). To be eligible for SHARP
participation, employers must receive a comprehensive
consultation visit, have injury and illness rates below the
industry average, demonstrate exemplary achievements in
workplace safety and health by abating all identified
hazards, and develop and implement an excellent safety and
health program.
Employers accepted into SHARP may receive an exemption from OSHA programmed inspections- but not from OSHA investigations of complaints or accidents-for one year.
For more information about consultation assistance in your state, visit www.osha.gov/SHARP.
OSHA Strategic Partnership Program (OSPP)
OSHA Strategic Partnerships are voluntary,
written, long-term agreements to form cooperative
relationships between OSHA and groups of employers,
employees, employees' union representatives, and sometimes
other stakeholders (for example, trade and professional
associations, universities and other government agencies).
OSPs aim to have a measurable, positive impact on the
American workplace by encouraging, assisting, and
recognizing partners' efforts to eliminate serious hazards
and to achieve a high level of employee safety and
health.
These partnerships help participants:
- Establish effective safety and health management systems;
- Train managers and employees to recognize, and then eliminate or control, hazards common to their industry and their particular worksite;
- Give employees the opportunity to become involved meaningfully in their own protection; and
- Create ways for partners to share expertise and other resources.
How partnerships improve worker safety and health
Many OSHA Strategic Partnerships are designed to lead to the development and implementation of comprehensive workplace safety and health management systems. OSHA has found that a systems approach is the best strategy for reducing deaths, injuries and illnesses on the job. Other partnerships focus on the elimination or control of a specific industry hazard.
Benefits of participating
Participating in an OSHA Strategic Partnership offers such benefits as:
- Declines in workplace injuries and illnesses, and consequent reductions in workers' compensation and other injury- and illness-related costs;
- Improved employee motivation to work safely, leading to better quality and productivity;
- Development or improvement of safety and health management systems;
- Positive community recognition and interaction; and
- Partnership with OSHA.
Voluntary Protection Programs
Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP)
represent one part of OSHA's effort to extend employee
protection beyond the minimum required by OSHA standards.
There are three VPP programs: Star, Merit, and Star
Demonstration. OSHA designed them to:
- Recognize outstanding achievement of employers and employees who are working together to provide high-quality worker protection by implementing effective safety and health management systems;
- Motivate other employers to achieve excellent safety and health results in the same outstanding way; and
- Establish a cooperative relationship between employers, employees, and OSHA.
How VPP can help employers and employees
VPP participation can mean:
- Improved employee motivation to work safely, leading to better quality and productivity;
- Lost workday case rates generally 50 percent below industry averages;
- Reduced workers' compensation and other injury- and illness-related costs;
- Positive community recognition and interaction;
- Further improvement and revitalization of already good safety and health management systems; and
- Partnership with OSHA.
How OSHA monitors VPP sites
OSHA reviews an employer's VPP application
and conducts an onsite review to verify that the safety and
health systems described are operating effectively at the
site. OSHA continues to conduct regular evaluations of
approved sites.
All participants must submit to their OSHA
regional office in February of each year a copy of the most
recent annual evaluation conducted at the site. This
evaluation must include the injury and illness numbers and
rates for the past year.
OSHA inspections at VPP and SHARP sites
Sites participating in VPP and SHARP are
exempt from programmed inspections. OSHA does respond,
however, to employee complaints, serious accidents, or
significant chemical releases that may occur according to
routine enforcement procedures.
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Business Feedback
Employers and employees are recognizing that OSHA has changed and that the agency wants to work cooperatively with them to help improve their workplaces.
"We can't make a quality product with an unsafe process." - Ken Lindgren, DACO, Inc.
"It makes sense to run an effective safety and health program because your people deserve it, your customers demand it, and your business practices and future will not be there without it." - Dan Fergus, Genesee Stampings
"Safety is a pass/fail item, in that if you fail at safety, the other stuff doesn't matter." - Mac Armstrong, Air Transport Association
"I want to see and hear my grandchildren, and because of the safety program at Curtis Lumber, I'm going to be able to." - John Meier, Curtis Lumber
"We feel that it is our duty to have every employee return home to his or her family sound and healthy every day." - John Obel, NexTech
"The health and safety of our people has always been of paramount importance to us. Our goal of zero incidents required teamwork like OSHA's Strategic Partnership Program, combined with relentlessly pursuing the elimination of unsafe actions and conditions." - Walter Berry, Bollinger Shipyards, Inc.
Additional small business success stories may be found on the OSHA small business web page at: www.osha.gov/smallbusiness.
For further information call (800) 321-OSHA or visit www.osha.gov
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OSHA National Office Directorates
Directorate of Construction
The Directorate of Construction develops workplace safety standards, guidance and outreach to ensure safe working conditions for the nation's construction workers. (202) 693-2020.
Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs
The Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs coordinates OSHA's role in carrying out training and education for employers and employees, implementing consultation and cooperative programs, and coordinating the agency's compliance assistance and outreach activities, as well as the agency's relations with state plan states. (202) 693-2200.
Directorate of Enforcement Programs
The Directorate of Enforcement Programs provides a balanced program for OSHA by establishing and maintaining a comprehensive occupational safety and health compliance guidance and assistance program and coordinating OSHA's inspection and enforcement programs. (202) 693-2100.
Directorate of Evaluation and Analysis
The Directorate of Evaluation and Analysis provides agency-wide evaluation and analytic leadership and services in support of OSHA program, legislative, regulatory, statistical, and policy development activities. (202) 693-2400.
Directorate of Science,Technology and Medicine
The Directorate of Science, Technology and Medicine supports other OSHA staff by providing specialized technical expertise and advice. (202) 693-2300.
Directorate of Standards and Guidance
The Directorate of Standards and Guidance contributes to ensuring safe and healthful working conditions in covered workplaces through development of workplace standards, regulations and guidance. (202) 693-1950.
The Office of Communications
The Office of Communications is responsible for media inquiries and publications development. (202) 693-1999.
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This is one in a series of informational fact sheets highlighting OSHA programs, policies or
standards. It does not impose any new compliance requirements. For a comprehensive list of
compliance requirements of OSHA standards or regulations, refer to Title 29 of the Code of Federal
Regulations. This information will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.
The voice phone is (202) 693-1999; teletypewriter (TTY) number: (877) 889-5627.
For more complete information:
![OSHA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090508115046im_/http://www.osha.gov/images/logo-120x35.gif) |
Occupational
Safety and Health
Administration |
U.S. Department of Labor
www.osha.gov (800) 321-OSHA
OSHA 3302-06N 2006
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