What is OSHA and What are They in Charge of?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is in charge of preventing safety hazards in the workplace and ensuring that employers remedy dangerous conditions to prevent injury to workers.
You probably learned in school about the dangerous conditions in which American workers did their jobs in the 19^th^ and early 20^th^ centuries. The stories of miners staying underground in the coal mines until the canaries on their shoulders died from inhalation of coal dust and the textile workers who, regardless of their level of fatigue, had to work fast enough or else the machines would slice their fingers are the stuff of nightmares. Who can forget the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory that killed 146 workers in New York City, where the doors to the stairwells were locked to prevent workers from walking off the job, or the 1932 photograph of construction workers taking their lunch break while perched on a beam 69 connected to the 69^th^ floor of Rockefeller Center, which fills you with fear even if you are seated safely indoors in your one-story house? Some necessary jobs carry inherent risks, and you would not want to live in a world without workplace safety regulations. To find out more about workplace safety contact an Omaha industrial accidents lawyer.
OSHA’s Mission
President Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law in 1970, creating OSHA, which is part of the Department of Labor. Since OSHA has been in existence, the number of workplace accidents involving death or serious injury has gotten much lower. OSHA sets regulations relating to many different types of workplace hazards, including but not limited to the following:
- Fall risks
- Exposure to dangerous substances such as lead, coal dust, asbestos dust, and volatile organic compounds
- Exposure to extreme temperatures and high-voltage electricity
If your employer provides protective gear or limits the amount of time that any employee can spend working in a certain area, it is because of OSHA regulations.
How Does OSHA Affect Your Workplace?
OSHA sets the rules about the minimum precautions that an employer must take for the workplace to be considered safe. In most cases, employers simply do the inspections, maintenance, and safety training required to comply with OSHA regulations, and visits from OSHA inspectors are uneventful. You might remember a time when an employer tasked you with removing a hazard or temporarily shut down a work area in response to instructions from an OSHA inspector. When employees notice safety hazards in the workplace and their employers are intentionally allowing those hazards to remain, they should notify OSHA directly. It is against the law for your employer to retaliate against you for reporting a workplace safety hazard to OSHA.
Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO, About OSHA Violations in Omaha Nebraska
Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO, in Omaha, Nebraska, to learn more.