At the Big Sky Labor and Employment Conference in Montana, which brings influential employee, employer, and neutral leaders together to discuss important labour and employment issues, OSHA Assistant Secretary David Keeling highlighted the agency’s commitment to working more closely with employers, listening to stakeholders, and raising awareness of the importance of prevention to businesses
Keeling outlined how OSHA plans to advance that vision:
• Provide small businesses with tailored guidance and practical support.
• Understand stakeholders' needs and how OSHA can be most effective for them.
• Build stronger partnerships across industries, associations, and alliances to share what works and amplify safety successes.
• Make resources easier to access by promoting onsite consultation, expanding training tools and enhancing digital resources so employers understand requirements before an incident happens.
Keeling also highlighted new initiatives designed to enhance workplace safety and health, including:
- The OSHA CARES Initiative, a customer service effort designed to help businesses meet federal requirements as well as building more effective safety and health programmes that benefit both employers and workers. It is aimed at supporting small and medium sized business in particular, strengthening collaboration between businesses and OSHA by increasing access to OSHA experts and compliance assistance specialists, improving access to educational and training materials, and offering consistent workplace assistance during enforcement visits and meetings.
- The Safety Champions Program, a new cooperative initiative designed to help employers develop and implement effective safety and health programmes. With a focus on proactive prevention and continuous improvement to prevent workplace injuries, illness and fatalities, it emphasises seven key elements: management leadership, worker participation, hazard identification, prevention and control, education and training, programme evaluation, and communication. By incorporating these elements, employers can create safety and health programs that not only meet regulations but also enhance workplace safety and health.
Along with the focus on assistance and partnership comes a strong enforcement role. Keeling emphasised OSHA priorities that include hiring compliance officers, focusing enforcement efforts on repeat violators and other bad actors, and modernising outdated rules by prioritising clarity and efficiency to meet the needs of today's workforce.
The mission of OSHA, part of the US Department of Labor, is to ensure America's workers have safe and healthy working conditions free from unlawful retaliation. It does this by setting and enforcing standards; enforcing anti-retaliation provisions of the OSH Act and other federal whistleblower laws; providing and supporting training, outreach, education, and assistance; and working collaboratively with state OSHA programmes, furthering a national system of worker safety and health protections.
