ABSTRACT
The passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 brought unprecedented changes in US workplaces, and the activities of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have contributed to a significant reduction in work-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses. Despite this, millions of workers are injured annually, and thousands killed.To reduce the toll, OSHA needs greater resources, a new standard-setting process, increased civil and criminal penalties, full coverage for all workers, and stronger whistleblower protections. Workers should not be injured or made sick by their jobs. To eliminate work injuries and illnesses, we must remake and modernize OSHA and restructure the relationship of employers and workers with the agency and each other.This includes changing the expectation of what employers must do to protect workers and implementing a requirement that firms have a "duty of care" to protect all people who may be harmed by their activities. Only by making major changes can we ensure that every worker leaves work as healthy as they were when their work shift began.
Subject(s)
Occupational Health/standards , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration/organization & administration , Workplace/standards , Accidents, Occupational/prevention & control , Federal Government , Humans , Occupational Diseases/prevention & control , Occupational Exposure/prevention & control , Occupational Health/legislation & jurisprudence , Safety Management/standards , United States , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration/legislation & jurisprudence , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration/standards , Workplace/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
Practitioners of Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) claim dramatic reductions in worker injuries and illnesses through modifying workers' "unsafe behaviors." This case study of a BBS program implemented by KFM, a giant construction consortium rebuilding the eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge in California, documents how BBS was used to suppress reporting of worker injuries and illnesses on site. The key elements of KFM's BBS "injury prevention" strategy included: 1) cash incentives to workers and supervisors who do not report injuries; 2) reprisals and threats of reprisals against those employees who do report injuries; 3) selection and use of employer friendly occupational health clinics and workers compensation insurance administrators; 4) strict limits on the activities of contract industrial hygiene consultants; and 5) a secretive management committee that decides whether reported injuries and illnesses are legitimate and recordable. KFM reported injury and illness rates 55% to 72% lower than other bridge builders in the Bay Area, but the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) issued Willful citations to the consortium in June 2006 for failing to record 13 worker injuries on its "OSHA Log 300," as required by law.
Subject(s)
Accidents, Occupational/statistics & numerical data , Documentation/methods , Employee Incentive Plans/organization & administration , Facility Design and Construction/statistics & numerical data , Safety Management/organization & administration , Humans , Occupational Health/statistics & numerical data , Organizational Case Studies , San Francisco , United States , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration/statistics & numerical data , Workers' Compensation/organization & administrationABSTRACT
Why should an employer who sends a worker to his death in an unmonitored confined space or an unprotected 12-foot deep trench not be prosecuted under a felony as opposed to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, where the maximum penalty for willfully killing a worker is a misdemeanor with a maximum of six months in jail? They should be so charged. The author deplores merely waiting for Congress to increase OSHA penalties.
