04.29.10

New Administration Increases OSHA Budget

More money is being budgeted for the U.S. Department of Labor with the new administration in place. What does that mean for OSHA and businesses across the country? Under the Labor Department’s requested budget, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would receive $564 million, an increase of $51 million (10 percent) over the previous year. While this renewed focus on worker safety and regulatory enforcement is great for the agency, it means businesses better be prepared to meet higher compliance demands.

In fact, some of OSHA’s 2010 goals are to:

• Hire 130 additional compliance officers and 25 additional whistle-blower investigators. These positions will be deployed in OSHA offices throughout the U.S. and many will be filled by bilinguals, allowing the agency to effectively communicate with the nation’s changing workplace demographic

• Continue targeting and providing outreach for establishments and industries that have above average injury, illness and fatality rates

• Continue developing and revising regulations and standards, as part of the agency’s regulatory agenda

According to Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, the budget increase will expand OSHA's workplace inspection staff by more than 10 percent and its whistle-blower investigation staff by nearly 33 percent. The additional staff will allow OSHA to direct more inspection resources to establishments with high fatality, injury and illness rates and will enable the agency to conduct more complaint investigations and lower the time required to complete an investigation.

These increases reflect a renewed commitment by the Obama administration to ensure that violations of the OSH Act are exposed and employers are held accountable for providing safe and healthy workplaces for their workers.