Question

Identify Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) governmental agency. Then do the following:

1. Discuss the role of the agency.
2. Present arguments for and against its role in the regulation of business.

Answer 1

Roles of OSHA

• OSHA encourages  both employers and employees to reduce workplace hazards and to implement new safety and health management systems or improve existing programs.
• They develops and maintains mandatory job safety and health standards and enforces them through the worksite inspections or by imposing citation and penalties.
• Encourages safe and healthful work environments through cooperative programs consisting of the the Voluntary Protection Programs, OSHA Strategic Partnerships, and Alliances.
• Helps in establishing responsibilities and rights for employers and employees to achieve better safety and health conditions.
• It supports the development of innovative ways of dealing with susceptible workplace hazards.
• Establishing needs and requirements for injury and illness recordkeeping by employers, and for employer monitoring of certain occupational illnesses.
• Conducting training programs to increase the competence of occupational safety and health personnel.
• It helps in providing technical and compliance assistance, and training and education to help employers reduce worker accidents and injuries.

Arguments for OSHA

• Reduces  workplace injuries and illnesses, and consequent reductions in workers' compensation and other injury- and illness-related costs.
• Improved employee motivation for job safely, leading to better quality and productivity.
• Development or improvement of safety and health management systems.
• Positive community recognition and interaction.

Arguments against OSHA

• The OSHA standards remain unchanged with time resulting in a bizarre incongruity in which employees can be exposed to atmospheres that can cause adverse severe health effects, yet are not violations of the standards.
• OSHA standards for hazardous chemical substances do not involve any modifications.
• OSHA standards for flammable liquids and spray finishing are based on the old National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) 1969 editions of NFPA-30 and NFPA-33. But many state and local jurisdictions have adopted more recent editions of NFPA standards than those adopted by OSHA leads to another anomaly.

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