The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) agenda to increase enforcement, which includes items such as ergonomics, noise standards, and an injury and illness prevention program, seems destined to run into resistance from the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It’s fairly clear that changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) proposed last year are done for. In their place, OSHA seems likely to move towards implementing its agenda through regulation, enforcement policy, and reinterpretation of existing standards, among other techniques.
The House, on the other hand, seems likely to try to increase its oversight on OSHA and increase review of OSHA’s non-legislative approach.
For more on what this means to employers, read Jim Stanley’s post on the Workplace Safety Blog. Jim is president of FDRsafety and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA.