Posted: March 26th, 2021

Occupational Safety and Health Administration agency with businesses

The e-Project
Theme: Occupational Safety and Health Administration agency with businesses; an evaluation
The occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as a government agency is tasked with ensuring that there are regulations and rules to develop and implement job safety and health plans for employees in different business and organization; thus, there is a great need to adopt technology and innovation to link the agency and the businesses. OSHA has its origins in the Department of Labor; thus, it’s major goal is the protection of workers’ health and safety in the U.S. OSHA was introduced by Congress through the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to ensure that workers operated in safe and healthy working conditions through enforcement of workplace laws and standards (Cunningham and Sinclair, 2015). Additionally, the achievement of safety and health goals under the OSHA can be enhanced by providing education, assistance, outreach, and training. Consequently, some various organizations and associations are committed to notice the principles, norms, and guidelines under OSHA. There is a requirement for the foundation interface that presents a common limit across two separate segments of PC and organization frameworks to improve the sharing of records and data. Also, OSHA’s effective activity and office under the interface will include the entering of sections in the government register, identification and coordination of agency’s events, and presentation of different publications on the use of web and internet. The success and operations of OSHA as an agency in regulating and enforcing safety and health and workers in businesses will be achieved by developing an elaborate interface between the agency and the businesses.
Entries for your Agency in the Federal Register
The evaluation of the levels and success of safety and health condition among workers in different businesses takes the entry of relevant evaluation data on the federal register that will be linked to the agency through the interface. The data input is done from the business or the workers’ side to the agency through the interface (Cortez and Valle, 2014). In this regard, the businesses are required to make entries on the injuries and illnesses experienced by their workers in operations. Different working conditions contribute to the workers being injured or contracting different forms of illnesses while working. The recording rules for the reporting and recording occupational illnesses and injuries are contained under the 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1904. The recording of the injuries and illnesses is done through obtaining a report on injuries and illnesses requiring medical treatment, recording of each injury under the OSHA Form 300, preparation of record occupational illnesses and injuries, preparation of annual summary on injuries and illnesses, and retections of the recording for five years. The records on the injuries and illnesses are vital in the indication of unsafe conditions and procedures, understanding of industry hazards, evaluation of workplace safety, and the implementation of worker protection and reduce and eliminate hazards. Equally important, the business is required to make reports on the accident within eight hours. Therefore, the records/entries on injuries and illnesses resulting from working conditions need to be entered in the Federal Register (Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics) for decisions making on various subjects related to workers’ health and safety.
Employee training and education to recognize safety and health hazards should be entered into the registry to enhance employee safety and working conditions. The employee needs to be subject to regular training on safety and health to ensure that they can prevent accidents as they work for their different business and organizations. OSHA requires employees to adhere to different rules and applicable OSHA standards and safety regulations, such as reporting job-related injuries and illness, reporting hazardous conditions, and wearing protective equipment. OSHA further guarantees the protection of employee rights (Cortez and Valle, 2014). In this regard, the employees need to be effectively trained to ensure they are adequately informed to take different actions based on circumstances to ensure that safety and healthy working condition is maintained. Therefore, making entries and records on employee training and education is vital to ensure that businesses and organizations are compliant.
The business needs to make entries and records on the cooperative or alliance programs run by OSHA to evaluate their application and enhance the general safety and healthy working conditions. Under OSHA, the programs enhance voluntary collaborative relationships between OSHA, business, private sector, and government entities in improving safety and health (Ali and Rawlins, 2019). The programs’ success has made OSHA continually and consistently expand its cooperative programs that include the voluntary protection program, free and confidential consultation program, safety and health achievement recognition program (SHARP), and strategic partnership programs. The businesses need to make entries on adopting the different programs as they are vital in enhancing development and implementation for workplace safety and health programs.
The business needs to make entries on exposure records that provide information on toxic substances, physical examination reports, hazardous exposures, and employment records to evaluate the businesses’ safety and health levels as per the OSHA standards. Identifying hazards determines whether the requirements apply in the business (Ali and Rawlins, 2019). The recording is used together with control procedures and with self-inspection activity. Bookkeeping operations in the business should be forwarded to the OSHA to track and identify the business’s positions and level of maintenance of safety and health.
Additionally, the businesses need to make the entries on their self-inspection are made to OSHA to effectively identify hazards by presenting the actual situation in the of the business from time to time. The self-inspection is implemented through a checklist developed for fact-finding purposes (Russell, Hays, and Powell, 2017). In this regard, the recording enhances the establishment of probable hazards and if they are under control. The self-inspection scope covers safety and health issues in the following areas processing, receiving, shipping and storage, building and grounds conditions, housekeeping program, electricity condition, lighting condition, heating and ventilation, machinery, personnel, hand and power tools, chemicals, fire prevention, maintenance, transportation, first Aid program and supplies, and evacuation plan. The different aspects of the checklist evaluate the safety and health measures and levels in an organization. The OSHA can recommend ensuring safety and health in the organization are upheld.
Current events involving your agency
OSHA implements and presents different events directed towards observing safety and health measures and regulations among businesses and organizations. OSHA holds different events to address both general and specific safety and health issues in the businesses. In this regard, on September 14, 2020, OSHA Trade Release indicated the launch of the 7th Annual Stand-Down To Prevent Falls event. The event is established and launch through the collaboration of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), and National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). Additionally, the event is supported by state consultation programs, the National Safety Council, the American Society of Safety Engineers, and National Construction Safety Executives (Witko, 2013). The event is directed to ensure that businesses and workers pause during fall prevention safety demonstrations, topical discussions, and training hazard recognition. The employers are responsible for offering safe and healthful working conditions and spaces for the employees to ensure that standards are set and enforced, provision of assistance, education, and training to ensure that falls among effectively prevented. The event has adopted the use of the internet and webpage to sensitize on the ant-fall campaign. Fall safety is provided virtually due to Coronavirus, and a webpage National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down has beende3veloped in the program’s interest.
The OSHA has the Beware After Hurricane Laura events as presented under the different regions releases. The event communicates the hazards arising after a hurricane, such as a storm debris, fallen trees, structural damage, and power loss and flooding. The events present the recovery measures after a hurricane that involve the restoration of electricity and communications, repairing damage, removing debris, trimming trees, and repairing and replacing roofs. Additionally, business is sensitized on protective measures after a weather disaster evaluation of work area for hazards, assessing the stability of structures, ensuring fall protection while working on elevated surfaces, assuming power lives are live, keeping portable generators outside, and use of protective equipment (Ko, Mendeloff and Gray, 2010). The event ensures that workers working in preparedness and response to hurricanes adopted the necessary safety tips to help businesses. The event is enhanced through a webpage maintains by OSHA named comprehensive webpage.
The launch of a new webpage to observe the Anniversary of the occupational safety and health Act of the 1970 event by the Department of labor. The development of the webpage highlights transformative workplace improvements over the past half a century. The webpage has transformed OSHA’s first standard and whistleblower protections to assistant programs for businesses, creating training centers and education grants to ensure that everyone understands and complies with the law (Liebman et al., 2018). The adoption of a webpage ensures that efforts to protect the American workforce are improved. The employers have the responsibility of ensuring that workers are exposed to safe and healthy working conditions. The establishment of a webpage ensures that businesses can access or be presented with standards, provision of training, education, and assistance. Therefore, information on employee protection through enhancing safety and health can be accessed for the website, and the employees in businesses can interact with OSHA on their working conditions.
The commemoration of the 50 years since the OSHA event initiation is vital to have been used to celebrate past achievements, current efforts, and plan for future initiatives to protect the American workforce. The OSHA has been a cornerstone worker protection in America, ensuring that workers safely go back to their homes. The OSHA has consistently grown and empowered the workers and businesses in achieving high progressive achievements towards upholding workers’ safety and healthy working conditions. Word related risks have reliably been decreased while improving laborers’ wellbeing. The 50 years accomplishments host banded together with associations and gatherings committed to the accomplishment of the authoritative mission (Caban et al., 2018). OSHA guarantees that each business party assumes their part and commitment in ensuring representatives by giving protected and restorative workstations to the workers through instruction concedes and making preparing organizations. Therefore, OSHA has been consistently committed to improving workers working conditions. OSHA commemoration of the 50 years appreciates that it has adopted the internet to enhance and support its operations by sending QuickTakes newsletter to different subscribers through different internet platforms providing the latest news and information on OSHA efforts to protect the American workforce.
Additionally, through the Department of Labor, OSHA has held public meeting events to present and sensitize the public on the leading indicators for safety and health programs. The Department of Labor ensures that interested parties and stakeholders such as businesses are engaged in discussions on matters showing occupational safety and health programs’ observation. The leading indicator is a safety and program component that monitors performance and progress to track the aspects of program performance (Oleinick, 2014). The public discussion and engagement focus on the use of leading indicators, choosing the indicators, what indicators track, the effectiveness of the indicators, and commonality of indicators across the industry and challenges encountered in using the indicators. OSHA ensures that it adopts the internet in the meeting’s conduct, ensuring that people virtually register to the meeting and can make their contribution virtually where the comments are submitted to the docket. Therefore, the public and businesses’ engagement in the meetings and discussions incorporates them in OSHA’s operations. Thus, they are part of the operation and can make a positive contribution to achieving the highest levels of success in securing workers’ safety and favorable working conditions.
Examples of the agency’s Publications
OSHA has consistently published different training, educational, or innovation materials to uphold safety and health in their working spaces.
Publication: Training Requirements in OSHA Standards
Source: https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha2254.pdf
The publication concentrates on developing and enforcing OSHA standards to assure safe and healthful working conditions for the workers. The OSHA standards are made operational by introducing research, education, training, and information to the different stakeholders. The publication offers a general overview of different standards on safety and health of the employees and businesses. Under the OSHA, the mandatory safety and health standards require the businesses to comply with safety and health standards and regulations promulgated by OSHA. The OSHA General Duty Clause, Section 5(a) (1) requires the businesses to offer their employees a workplace free from identified hazards with the capability of causing death or serious physical harm. In this regard, the OSHA standards are presented through the training requirements for workplace safety, protection on the job, prevention programs against injuries and illnesses, and educational information training institutes to ensure that the workers’ high levels of safety and health measures are effectively observed. Therefore, the OSHA standards’ publication ensures that businesses adhere to the safety and health requirements established.
Publication: Job Safety and Health: It’s the Law Poster
Source: https://www.osha.gov/pls/publications/publication.html#op
The publication presents the workers’ rights and the thing the employers must do as prescribed under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The rights of the workers ensure that their safety and health in the workplaces are observed and maintained. In this regard, the employees have rights to safe workplaces, raise safety or health concerns with their employers, receive training and information on hazards, request a confidential inspection in their workplaces, participate in inspections, and fill complaints requesting copies of medical records tests that measure hazards. On the other hand, employers are obligated to ensure the workplace is free from hazards, comply with OSHA standards, notify work fatalities in 8 hours, offer relevant safety training, and post OSHA citations and posters in workplaces. The employees and employers are linked to the OSHA as an agency through internet platforms, thus facilitating communication and interactions.
Publication: Guidance on preparing on Workplace for COVID 19
Source: https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3990.pdf
The publication presents recommendations and safety and health standards to observe Coronavirus’s spread in workplaces. The recommendations offered are advisory in nature and informational to ensure that employers provide a safe and healthful working condition during the coronavirus pandemic. The employers are required to comply with safety and health standards and regulations as provided under OSHA. The publication is vital in ensuring that Covid-19 outbreaks conditions are prevented from affecting parties to a business. The publication is produced and shared with the businesses on different online platforms, thus ensuring that businesses adopt comprehensive prevention in spreading the disease.
Publication: Ten Steps All Workplaces Can Take to Reduce Risk of Exposure to Coronavirus Poster
Source: https://www.osha.gov/pls/publications/publication.html#c19
The publication is presented as a poster and available to all the businesses to provide guidelines to reduce Coronavirus exposure. The different steps provided prevent workers and other stakeholders from infections. The different steps include encouraging sick workers to stay home, enhancing respiratory etiquette, encouraging proper hand wash, limiting worksite access, establishing flexible worksites, discouraging workers from using other workers’ devices or property, regularly cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, and ensuring that safety and health concerns are reported. The guidelines will go along the way in preventing the spread of Coronavirus. The Coronavirus guideline poster is on the OSHA website and available for printing for all the business and reposting in the online platform, ensuring that many businesses and people access the message.
Publication: Guidance on Returning to work
Source: https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA4045.pdf
The OSHA has developed guidelines and guidance to assist employers and workers to safely return to work and reopening of businesses in the course of the evolving coronavirus Disease 2019. The rules are moored on strategies and methods to guarantee that the wellbeing and soundness of representatives and different partners in the business are successfully defended. The rules are created through the collaboration or association between the U.S. Department of Labor. The reopening of businesses is done in phases and is based on different guiding principles on the OSHA safety and health of workers. The publication ensures that there is business continuity despite the Coronavirus disease’s existence as safety and health precautions are taken. The publications are made available on the OSHA website to print and transmit across the different businesses and organizations for maximum safety.
Conclusion
Occupational Safety and Health Administration agency (OSHA) has the duty and obligations to ensure that business observes safety and healthful measures and standards for their employees and other stakeholders. Thus, they must be effectively interfaced to interact to ensure that their goals and objectives are achieved. In this regard, the business must make different entries on their conditions on the level of safety and health with the federal registry to enhance recommendations. Additionally, OSHA initiated and implemented its events and publications in line with upholding the safety and health of workers and stakeholders in businesses. Adopting the internet in the OSHA operations ensures that OSHA and businesses are effectively interfaced to enhance organizational operations.
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