Osha Paper

Osha is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration  an agency of the United States Department of Labor. Osha requires employers to provide their employees with safety from all known dangers. Osha was created December 29, 1970, and it was signed by president Richard M. Nixon.

This case is followed by the laws and regulations of OSHA. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) is an organization that has been put into place to ensure the safety of employees while on their jobs. These regulations are put into place to help reduce the number of on the job injuries and deaths.

“Employees or their representatives have a right to request an inspection of a workplace if they believe there is a violation of a safety or health standard, or if there is any danger that threatens physical harm, or if an "imminent danger" exists. In addition, anyone who knows about a

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), often referred to as the "OSH Act," was enacted in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon. Its purpose is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for men and women (EPA, 2006). The Act is administered and enforced at the national level by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a division of the US Department of Labor. The application of the OSH Act in the current employment climate will be discussed as it applies to a variety of industries; considerations that are most applicable to the specific type of industry will be discussed initially, and those that are equally important regardless of the type of business will complete the section. Finally, this paper will discuss how the

“Everyone has the right to a safe workplace. The law requires employers to provide their employees with working conditions that are free of known dangers. Employers MUST provide their employees with a workplace that does not have serious hazards and follow all relevant OSHA safety and health standards. You cannot be transferred, denied a raise, have your hours reduced, be fired, or punished in any other way because you used any right given to you under the OSHA Act.”

In 1970 OSHA was designed to set in place guidelines to organize and regulate practices to reduce the injuries and accidents in the work place. These guidelines are there to both protect the worker and the employer. If the health care worker follows these important guidelines and is injured, the employer is responsible. However, if the injury or accident is a result to the worker’s negligence or disrespect to the procedure and guidelines, then the worker is at fault.

According to Safe Work Australia over the last three years Australia has consistently lost over 160 workers each year as a result of fatal work place injuries and over 94% of the workplace fatalities in 2014 were men.

The US Department of Labor has recorded a steady decrease of work-related injuries and fatalities since 2012 and as of 2014, 120 work related fatalities have been recorded, 38% lower than 2013 (6). This decline in fatalities can be attributed to several factors, safer equipment, more safety regulations, etc.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) was developed and approved because of the escalating costs of accidents and illnesses in the workplace. According to Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, and Cardy (2010), OSHA is a national law that requires organizations to offer a safe and healthy workplace, to conform with particular occupational and health standards, and to document job-related injuries and diseases.

At 2012, the population of the workforce in the United States was estimated by the U.S. civilian labor force as 155 million workers. Having a stable job can contribute positively to that individual’s physical and psychological health. However, work environment can be a source of many hazardous issues that may lead to work-related injuries or illnesses, which may be fatal and in many cases nonfatal. On the other hand, occupational injuries can have a negative effect on the United States’ economy; it is estimated that nonfatal injuries can cost the economy approximately $200 billion annually, while fatal injuries are estimated to cost $6 billion annually. Managing these issues is an important task which could be approached in many different ways. Dealing with the issues helps in the protection of workers, not to mention it can decrease the losses to the economy associated with this matter. An example of prevention efforts, is the CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report (CHDIR), which assess disparities across a wide range of diseases, behavior risk factors, environmental exposures, social determinants, and health-care access. But in order to establish such programs and reports, an initial and important step is having information on the most frequent occupational fatal and non-fatal injuries and illnesses in the United States, which should be provided through routine, if not annual statistical reports. Fortunately, such information exists in the United States, those

Based on United States Department of Labor website, “The Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed in 1970 to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women”. (www.OSHA.gov). It governs occupational health, and safety in the private sectors in the United States. Congress passed the act to keep employees safe from harm, and injuries in the workplace. Although the law helped a lot to drop the rate of the workplace death and occupational injuries, there are still a number of work related injuries, illnesses, and even death that workers face with. The goal was to make sure employers provide their employees a safe and healthful workplace. OSHA standards require that employers need to adapt certain practices to protect

President Richard Nixon signed into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, which caused a robust of debates, before the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act became effective on April 28, 1971. In the same year a report revealed there had been approximately 14,000, occupational fatalities, 2.5 million job-related disabilities and 300,000 new cause of job-related illness (OSHA History). In addition, to the millions of employees suffering from workplace injuries, the employers were taking a financial hit from paying out more than $53 billion a year in worker’s compensation claims, indirect cost to the employee, and production lost (All About OSHA).

Since the foundation of OSHA an organization that regulates worker health and safety in the United States, it have empowered employers to protect workers in the workplace from exposure to potential health hazards. It have also allowed employees input in safety decision making as well as revealing safety deficiencies so that management can take corrective actions to protect employees health and safety in the workplace. However, in the case of our discussion post, I believe that the employee reported violation of OSHA safety policy based of his inability to perform his duties efficiently. Although the employees was right under the law to have reported such violations at the dry cleaning company. Ultimately, his report should have been made when he was still employed at with the company. OSHA clearly state” Employees are granted several important rights by the OSH Act. Among them are the right to: complain to OSHA about safety and health conditions in their workplace and have their identity kept confidential from the employer,

Furthermore, the rate of on the job accidents and injuries is likely to increase due to the use of alcohol. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, between 10 and 20 percent of workers who die on the job test positive for alcohol or other drugs, and cites construction, mining, and manufacturing – some of the industries which are already at a high risk for occupational

In the United States, construction has always been one of the most dangerous industries to work in. The number of fatalities that occur in this industry year after year demonstrate this. In 2014, 19.6% of worker fatalities, in private industry, were in construction (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015) despite the industry comprising only 6.8% of the total work force. This epidemic is not unique to the United States. Essentially every country faces similar problems regarding construction safety. For example, in 2004 the Australian construction industry employed approximately 8% of the countries workforce. However, workers compensation statistics indicated that the industry’s incidence rate was 28.6 per 1000 employees,