Created by Congressional legislation in the late 1970s, the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH) has come a long way in providing regulatory oversite for the implementation of safety measures in the workplace. The establishment of the OSH Act was the result of constant workplace accidents, conditions and practices that did not take environmental health and safety measures into account, thereby creating hazardous working conditions for American workers.
Since its establishment, the Act calls for the periodic reviews, inspections, implementation of policies and procedures for occupational health and safety measures that affect millions of workers around the country. Before the enactment of the federal OSH Act, millions of workers …show more content…
The Act empowers safety professionals to set standards that forces management to comply with federal laws and to ensure that management stay focused and aware of the system that promotes safety measure and decreases workplace accidents. The law is of significant importance to me because it allows EHS professionals to model safety policies that may be an effective safety program in an effort to reduce workload and boost a culture of openness when discussing environmental health safety with …show more content…
As a student, I have come to understand that the current laws have loopholes that are not aligned with OSHA policy. For example, Bradbury, John Charles authors of “Regulatory federalism and workplace safety: evidence from OSHA enforcement, 1981–1995” explains, “Over its history, evidence of OSHA’s effectiveness as a regulatory agency has been somewhat weak, especially during its early years. Viscusi (1979) provides the first study of OSHA enforcement from 1972 to 1975, and finds very little evidence of any impact on workplace safety. He notes that the high cost of compliance coupled with low expected penalties for violations creates little incentive for firms to comply with OSHA to improve workplace safety”( Bradbury and Charles,2006). The weakness in the implementation and low penalties for violations continue to put employees in harm’s way and has created loopholes that affect the workplace health and safety culture negatively. This promotes management failure to review performance standards that support corporate organizational goals, financials, commercial plans and environmental
Since its establishment, the Act calls for the periodic reviews, inspections, implementation of policies and procedures for occupational health and safety measures that affect millions of workers around the country. Before the enactment of the federal OSH Act, millions of workers …show more content…
The Act empowers safety professionals to set standards that forces management to comply with federal laws and to ensure that management stay focused and aware of the system that promotes safety measure and decreases workplace accidents. The law is of significant importance to me because it allows EHS professionals to model safety policies that may be an effective safety program in an effort to reduce workload and boost a culture of openness when discussing environmental health safety with …show more content…
As a student, I have come to understand that the current laws have loopholes that are not aligned with OSHA policy. For example, Bradbury, John Charles authors of “Regulatory federalism and workplace safety: evidence from OSHA enforcement, 1981–1995” explains, “Over its history, evidence of OSHA’s effectiveness as a regulatory agency has been somewhat weak, especially during its early years. Viscusi (1979) provides the first study of OSHA enforcement from 1972 to 1975, and finds very little evidence of any impact on workplace safety. He notes that the high cost of compliance coupled with low expected penalties for violations creates little incentive for firms to comply with OSHA to improve workplace safety”( Bradbury and Charles,2006). The weakness in the implementation and low penalties for violations continue to put employees in harm’s way and has created loopholes that affect the workplace health and safety culture negatively. This promotes management failure to review performance standards that support corporate organizational goals, financials, commercial plans and environmental