All About OSHA

OSHA 3302-06N, All About OSHA. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to help employers and employees reduce injuries, illnesses and deaths on the job in America. Employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their employees. OSHA's role is to assure the safety and health of America's workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach, and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement in workplace safety and health. OSHA establishes and enforces protective standards and reaches out to employers and employees through technical assistance and consultation programs. OSHA and its state partners have approximately 2,400 inspectors and about 550 state consultants, plus complain discrimination investigators, engineers, physicians, educators, standard writers, and other technical and support personnel spread over more than 130 office throughout the country. OSHA works to assure the safety and health of all America's working men and women. Since the establishment of OSHA, workplace fatalities have been cut by more than 60 percent and occupational injury and illness rates have declined 40 percent. At the same time, U.S. employment has more than doubled and now includes over 115 million workers at 7.2 million worksites. OSHA provides national leadership in occupational safety and health. The agency seeks to find and share the most effective ways to help prevent worker fatalities, and prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. When employees stay whole and healthy, businesses also benefit. They experience lower workers' compensation insurance costs, reduced medical expenditures, decreased payout for return-to-work programs, fewer faulty products, and lower costs for job accommodations for injured workers. There are also indirect benefits such as increased productivity, lower costs for training replacement workers and decreased costs for overtime.