Last Friday, April 28, on Workers Memorial Day, lawmakers fittingly proposed once again to expand OSHA’s ability to protect state and local government employees. The bill- The Protecting America’s Workers Act- looks to increase monetary penalties for “high gravity” OSHA violations as well as authorize felony penalties against employers who “knowingly commit OSHA violations that result in death or serious bodily injury.”
What Is The “Protecting America’s Worker’s Act”?
The bill, which has been proposed numerous times over the last 20 years but never advanced, seeks to protect American workers through a few key provisions. First, the act would allow OSHA to cite employers for recordkeeping violations within 5 and a half years after an incident whereas the current rules only allow for six months.
Maybe the most significant section of the proposal hopes to authorize felony penalties against employers who willingly commit OSHA violations that end in employee injury or death. Under the Protecting America’s Workers Act, those penalties could apply to corporate officers, directors and executives.
Other provisions include requiring OSHA to investigate every case of death or serious injury within the workplace, updating OSHA standards for the first time since 1971, strengthening whistleblower protections, expanding record keeping, and mandating that employers correct their unsafe conditions in a “timely manner.”
Is There a Need?
United States Representative Joe Courtney, a sponsor of the bill said, “While OSHA has helped protect Americans for generations, too many workers are still facing injury, illness or death. Congress must pass the Protecting America’s Workers Act to address the shortfalls in the law that have hamstrung further progress toward safer workplaces.”
Statistics support these claims as workplace fatalities have been cut by a staggering 60 percent since the establishment of OSHA in 1971. During that same time, the population of the workforce nearly doubled from 56 million workers to 105 million. Additionally, a report from AFL-CIO found that more than 668,000 lives have been saved by OSHA.
Despite the vast improvement, today’s workers, especially in manual labor jobs, face hazard and injury. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.8 out of every 100 workers are injured in workplace accidents every year and there was a total of 5,190 deaths on the job in 2021. More than 15% of all workplace injuries were in the manufacturing and construction fields alone.
And although OSHA has cut the number of workplace fatalities and injuries, there were a reported 2,607,900 workplace injuries reported in 2021. The most common cause of those injuries was falls, slips, and trips.
Where Kokomo24/7® Comes In
Many of the workplace hazards that OSHA looks for can be easily reported using Kokomo24/7® software tools such as incident management. Our incident management tools allow employees and employers to better track and manage safety violations in the workplace.
Companies can also use our notification tools to send reminders or work assignments to specific people or departments to help ensure work is followed up on in a timely manner. Our robust, yet easy-to-use software platform streamlines the complex task of both reporting and managing incidents in the workplace as they arise, leading to better management of expected and unexpected problems—and helps organizations to meet OSHA compliance requirements.
Ever since Kokomo24/7® was founded in 2018, we have been a leader in compliance and risk management solutions for all things health and safety. Kokomo24/7® proudly serves schools, communities, and workplaces. Our mission is to deliver highly effective, easy-to-use, and trusted compliance and risk management solutions that bridge the gap between public safety and technology.
Whether you work for a large or small organization, small school, a big-city public district, or any institution in between, we want to hear from you. To learn more about Kokomo24/7® or to get a free 15-minute demo click the button below.