Comments on: A prediction: What’s ahead for OSHA under Michaels

By: Steel manufacturer

Steel manufacturer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:16:01 +0000

I agree with both John’s. They seem to understand the situation much better than OSHA and Michaels.

By: OSHA Comin’ « Fix Your Risk

OSHA Comin’ « Fix Your Risk — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:24:51 +0000

[...] was recently confirmed on December 03, 2009 as the new head of OSHA. In a blog post over at FDRSafety.com, the author of the blog, Jim Stanley expects Dr. Michaels to increase OSHA’s vigilance in [...]

By: John Skowronek

John Skowronek — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:18:59 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree with John. I am an OSHA trainer and in my training of small business owners, I find that they WANT to provide training their employees and provide safe and healthful work environments. I teach them the “purpose clause” of the OSH act which says basically that the purpose of the Act is to provide for the general welfare of every working man and woman by “encouraging employers and employees in their efforts to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards at their places of employment, and to stimulate employers and employees to institute new and to perfect existing programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions.”

The Act goes on to say this should be accomplished, in part, by “providing for training programs to increase the number and competence of personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health.” I stress to then that OSHA wants to partner with them to help the to provide safe and healthful working conditions. They cite articles like this one to argue that all OSHA is interested in is finding nit picky “hazards” that they can fine employers for, while ignoring the help that these small business need in better educating themselves and their employees.

However, OSHA now seems to be headed more toward a citation based policy of disincentives that do nothing but further that notion of an adversarial relationship between OSHA and small business. The “beatings will continue until safety improves” attitude will NOT foster better relations between employers and employees to cooperatively work toward furthering safe and healthful working conditions that clearly benefit employers as much as employees. Training and assistance to small business would be a much more effective policy.

This will unfortunately never happen as long as the powerful lobbies like the trial lawyers, who stand to directly benefit by a disconnect between OSHA and small businesses continue to be able to use their lobbying muscle to direct policy that favor their special interests over the interests of the working men and women of this country.

By: John Astad

John Astad — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:30:27 +0000

Just my two cents. I think they have it all backwards. Instead of the Directorate of Enforcement Programs leading the charge in more citations, it should be more emphasis on small business with assistance through the Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs and training though the Directorate of Training and Education.

All the scalps above look good on the coup stick in making exciting OSHA headlines with the “new sheriff in town,” in contrast to addressing the problem through education. It was very odd at the recent OSHA ComDust ANPRM stakeholder meeting that there was no OSHA representation from Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs and Directorate of Training and Education. Educate instead of legislate, especially since the worst recession in over a half a century.