Challenge, defend, or supplement comments made by one of your classmates. Respond to each. Your additional information may be from the news, your readings/research, and/or personal experience. Cite your sources. APA, 250 words

Within your post, support your responses with information from at least two reputable sources (library and/or Web-based) and provide the full citation at the end. Use APA format for your references. Bring in your own personal experiences, if applicable. 

Discussing the OSHA Guidelines Module 3 Discussion

Reginald Avila posted Mar 15, 2020 3:23 PM

Professor/Classmates,

1. What is O.S.H.A.’s impact on safety in the U.S. workplace?

O.S.H.A. a 1970 ACT that focused on the health and safety of workers. It was enacted to deliver education, training, outreach, and assistance to the U.S. workforce to ascertain that they enjoyed safe and healthy working environments (U.S.D.L., n.d). Since O.S.H.A. came into effect, have not only the workplace fatalities reduced by half, but also illness and work-related injuries have decreased by 40%. Cooperative programs have been executed including consultation assistance that guides employers in instituting and maintaining a safe and healthy environment at no cost. Likewise, the voluntary protection initiative involves recognizing those companies that have gone the extra mile to ensure the safety of their employees. Such commendable companies include the United Space Alliance and Lucent Technologies (U.S.D.L., n.d.)

2. What are the disadvantages of O.S.H.A. law?

Companies must adhere to O.S.H.A. requirements. Although O.S.H.A. provides discussion assistance, companies still have to undergo the expenditure of improving the security and wellbeing of its workforce. This is particularly expensive in chemical industries, manufacturing industries, and construction sites. Employee involvement, which is encouraged by O.S.H.A., is disadvantageous to employers since employees may dictate what is safe or not, leading to disparities between the management and the workforce (Hickman, 2017). Some of the legislations under O.S.H.A., such as PEL (permissible exposure limits), are outdated since their basis was on the 1960s standards leaving employees exposed to safety and health issues that are not against the O.S.H.A. regulations. Inspections conducted by O.S.H.A. operatives are often counterproductive, whereby the inspectors overlook some hazardous items in favor of less impactful evils (Rekus, 2012). 

3. What would be the consequences if O.S.H.A. were repealed?

President Donald Trump repealed a regulation of O.S.H.A. known as the “Volks” rule, which meant that the original duration of pursuit for safety breaches reduced to only six months from 5 years. O.S.H.A. experts discoursed that the repeal opened doors for employers to hide recurrent hazardous occurrences and injuries from inspectors, and in case they were discovered, the regulators would not be in a position to take action beyond six months (Harress, 2017). Furthermore, it would also discredit responsible employers who would not be able to compete with unscrupulous employers leading to more deaths, injuries, sickness, and general recklessness. Such an action would also gravely affect the bureau of statistics which would not have an accurate description of the working conditions of the citizenry (Jordan, 2017). The above was just a preview of the likely grave aftermaths of an entire O.S.H.A. repealing.

4. What recommendations do you have to improve O.S.H.A. law or its regulations?

O.S.H.A. should restrain from just improving old legislations such as the standards for flammable liquids and spray painting, and develop new standards fit for the 21st century. Likewise, the O.S.H.A. regulations should include all firm sizes, especially the small companies, where inspection and compliance are often overlooked. Most of the errors in O.S.H.A. are in its inspection process. Therefore, O.S.H.A. would achieve more if this process was more streamlined. Studies have shown that higher compliance is achievable after the first inspection and so O.S.H.A. would accomplish more if the checks were done more extensively rather than intensively. O.S.H.A. ought to educate workers on the possible hazards in different industries since they cannot receive premiums for risks they are not aware of (Hale & Leeth, 2020).

References

Hale, N., & Leeth, J. (2020, January 10). Evaluating OSHA’s effectiveness and suggestions for reform. Retrieved from

https://www.mercatus.org/publications/regulation/evaluating-oshas-effectiveness-and-suggestions-reform

Harress, C. (2017, April 7). Alabama’s workplaces more dangerous after OSHA repeal? Retrieved from

https://www.al.com/news/2017/04/gulfcoast_shipbuilding_could_b.html

Hickman, M. (2017, September 26). OSHA VPP Disadvantages. Retrieved from

https://legalbeagle.com/13659168-osha-vpp-disadvantages.html

Jordan. (2017, April 4). Trump signs repeal of volks rule: Workers lose. Retrieved from

Trump Signs Repeal of Volks Rule: Workers Lose

Rekus, J. (2012, April 13). OSHA: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Retrieved from

https://www.ehstoday.com/archive/article/21914339/osha-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

U.S.D.L. (n.d.). About OSHA. Retrieved from

https://www.osha.gov/aboutosha

U.S.D.L. (n.d.). OSHA success stories. Retrieved from

https://www.osha.gov/archive/oshinfo/success.html

v/r

Reggie