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Leslie is joined by Steve Sallman, Director of the United Steelworkers Health, Safety and Environment Department, where he’s worked for more than 17 years.

Today, Steve and Leslie discuss helping OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) save lives.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency that ensures Americans have safe workplaces, has been helping save lives since its foundation with the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act.
- One of its first standards set permissible exposure limits for more than 400 toxic substances, with more recent guidance covering concerns ranging from bloodborne pathogens to silica dust.

- OSHA performs tens of thousands of inspections every year.

- Between 1970 and 2019, workplace fatalities were reduced by 60 percent and injuries and illnesses fell by almost 75 percent.

Unfortunately, the previous administration starkly illustrated how much OSHA’s ability to perform this vital work can hinge on external factors.

- Under President Donald Trump, OSHA’s enforcement activities plummeted to new lows even as worker deaths soared to the highest level in more than a decade.

- It even rolled back a 2016 rule requiring most employers to electronically submit detailed reports on workplace injuries because powerful corporations didn’t like it.

Now, we have a new administration and new opportunities.

- Health care workers finally got an emergency temporary standard for occupational exposure to Covid-19.

- It’s also working to keep workers safe through vaccination and testing.

- Workers across industries need the protections from other hazards like heat stress—a growing danger because of climate change — and workplace violence

President Biden’s Build Back Better plan also presents an opportunity to enable OSHA to keep workers safe from a variety of hazards by expanding its budget and increasing penalties for workplace health and safety violations.

- The Build Back Better Act passed by the U.S. House last month would provide an additional $707 million to OSHA over the next five years to facilitate enforcement, standards development, whistleblower investigations, compliance assistance, funding for State plans, and related activities

- It also provides $133 million to the Mine Safety and Health Administration for similar work

- While it’s impossible to put a price tag on a safe work environment, it also makes important increases to the maximum penalties OSHA can levy:

-Penalties for serious violations would increase from $13,653 to $70,000

-Penalties willful violations and repeat violations would increase from $136,530 to $700,000


- Both enforcement and real penalties are important for incentivizing employers to address concerns and provide a safe work environment

OSHA has proven to be vital to protecting workers. With the help of this administration and hopefully this legislation, it will be able to do even more.

Steve Sallman has nearly 30 years of safety and health experience, investigating fatalities and life-altering accidents, providing assistance to local unions and working closely with employers’ safety and health professionals.

The website for the United Steelworkers is USW.org.
Their handle on both Twitter and Instagram is @steelworkers.