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OSHA emphasis on compliance assistance made clear at safety conference

August 30th, 2018 by Dakota Software Staff

OSHA emphasis on compliance assistance made clear at safety conference

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recently placed more of an emphasis on helping businesses comply with health and safety regulations. While the federal regulator still regularly issues fines and engages in many other forms of enforcement efforts, it has increased resources around and attention to programs that allow companies to avoid those actions in the first place. While OSHA currently lacks a permanent leader, Alex Acosta, Secretary of Labor, spoke at the Voluntary Protection Program Participants' Safety+ Symposium in Nashville about this strategy.

A focus on assistance

"OSHA will continue to emphasize compliance assistance."

Acosta clarified OSHA's position on enforcement in front of a crowd of safety professionals in late August, EHS Today reported. His remarks indicated that OSHA will continue to perform enforcement work, but that the health and safety watchdog isn't interested in "playing a game of gotcha." Acosta went on to say that instances where workers are injured or killed due to a company not following OSHA regulations should lead to criminal prosecution.

"If you knowingly disregard laws that are in place to protect working Americans, the costs are more than dollars," Acosta said, according to EHS Today.

The concept behind a broader dedication of resources to compliance assistance is ultimately prevention, Occupational Health & Safety noted. Companies that face fines and other regulatory actions suffer consequences that encourage them to make changes. Other businesses may see the results of an infraction and similarly correct their own issues in an attempt to avoid the penalties. However, a worker still has to suffer through an incident caused by faulty planning for this to happen. Acosta believes more work put into compliance assistance and prevention will help reduce those initial accidents and keep workers safer.

"We're interested in enforcement against the wrongdoer and helping the [companies] that want to comply," he said, according to Occupational Health & Safety. "The Department of Labor has a strong enforcement record. It's the strongest record in years."

The changes in the DOL and OSHA's approach to their responsibilities related to workplace safety likely won't have major impacts on businesses that already emphasize compliance with health and safety rules. The offering of additional resources in terms of compliance is helpful, especially for companies that are expanding and need guidance on new structures, equipment and associated safety processes. The best defense against an OSHA fine or penalty will remain a strong, regularly updated understanding of relevant rules.

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