Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Difference between revisions

|OrganizationType=Executive Departments (Sub-organization)

|Mission=OSHA's mission is to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance. It aims to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths by promoting workplace safety and health.

|CreationLegislation=Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

|Employees=2100

In 2000, OSHA issued an ergonomics standard. In March 2001, [[United States Congress|Congress]] voted to repeal the standard through the [[Congressional Review Act]]. The repeal, one of the first <!-- A reporting standard was blocked by Congressional Review Act in 2017:

Since 2001, OSHA has issued the following standards:

In 2020, the [[COVID-19]] pandemic caused about 1,300 workers and their families to contract the virus, with four deaths, at the [[Smithfield Foods]] packing plant in [[Sioux Falls, South Dakota]]. The governor, [[Kristi Noem]], resisted initiating and enforcing measures to protect workers and the community.<ref name=KC>[https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article245633785.html After COVID-19 outbreak kills 4, Smithfield meat plant in South Dakota fined $13,494], ''[[Kansas City Star]]'', Chacour Koop, September 10, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2020.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Trevor J. |last=Mitchell |url=https://eu.argusleader.com/story/news/2020/05/04/south-dakota-confirms-37-more-cases-covid-19/3077130001 |title=Noem 'disappointed' Smithfield isn't sharing reopening plans |date=May 4, 2020 |newspaper=[[Argus Leader]] |language=en |access-date=September 13, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ontariofarmer.com/news/farm-news/smithfield-plant-linked-to-600-covid-19-cases |title=Smithfield plant linked to 600 COVID-19 cases |date=April 17, 2020 |website=Ontario Farmer |publisher=Postmedia News |language=en-CA |access-date=September 13, 2020}}</ref> The plant was fined $13,494 – the maximum allowed at the time – by OSHA for what was considered a single violation.<ref name=KC/>

==Record keeping requirements==

A ''New York Times'' investigation in 2003 showed that over the 20-year period from 1982 to 2002, 2,197 workers died in 1,242 incidents in which OSHA investigators concluded that employers had willfully violated workplace safety laws. In 93% of these fatality cases arising from wilful violation, OSHA made no referral to the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] for criminal prosecution.<ref name="Barstow">David Barstow, [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/22/us/us-rarely-seeks-charges-for-deaths-in-workplace.html?mcubz=1 U.S. Rarely Seeks Charges For Deaths in Workplace], ''New York Times'' (December 22, 2003).</ref> The ''Times'' investigation found that OSHA had failed to pursue prosecution "even when employers had been cited before for the very same safety violation" and even in cases where multiple workers died. In interviews, current and former OSHA officials said that the low rates of criminal enforcement were the result of "a bureaucracy that works at every level to thwart criminal referrals. ... that fails to reward, and sometimes penalizes, those who push too hard for prosecution" and that " aggressive enforcement [was] suffocated by endless layers of review.<ref name="Barstow"/>

== Directors ==