OSHA’s OVERSIGHT OF STATE PLANS

About the Book

This book publishes the author’s 1999 Doctorate thesis regarding OSHA and the State plans. The OSHAct of 1970 is the worker protection safety and health act that encourages the States to develop and enforce their own worker protection laws. The States must be “as effective as” the OSHA administration and enforcement program. The Act required that States develop their own experimental and demonstrative programs to protect workers. However, the OSHA interpretation of “as effective as” means that the States must “do the same as” OSHA. In 2015 OSHA penalties increased and the States were required to adopt the same. The penalty increase resulted in higher performance measures or quotas used to compare the States with OSHA. This means compliance officers focus on keeping the penalties in accordance with national statistics. Efforts to reduce or eliminate workplace hazards are diminished with the higher penalties and unfair processes.

About the Author

Walter Chun is an occupational safety and health professional with over 50 years of experience in this field. He was the industrial safety director at the naval shipyard in Hawaii, the USDOL OSHA Area Director in the Pacific, the Deputy ES&H Director for a contractor at the Nevada Test Site, and an independent consultant for the last 20 plus years. In the early 1990s as the OSHA Area Director in the Pacific he managed the challenges in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. The undesirable and unsafe conditions of the garment factories and the high fatality rates in the construction industry in Guam were the major challenges. This experience provided insight to the OSHA failures of high numbers of inspections, citations and penalties to cause change in the workplace environment. Change can only occur with the cooperation and coordination with many disciplines and industry leaders.