Washington — Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Tuesday that the top priorities of her department are hiring investigators and enforcing regulations on worker safety and fair pay.
The previous administration had neglected those issues, Solis said in one of her first appearances on Capitol Hill.
Solis said the focus on the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well as its Wage and Hour Division is especially important now. Federal recovery funding is launching construction projects that will need oversight to protect workers.... Read more here.
Whether you feel OSHA should make hiring investigators and enforcing regulations a priority or not, the fact remains that approximately 100 employees per week die in the course of their jobs.
The stimulus projects will result in hiring employees, some of whom have transitioned from other fields. A company is mandated
to furnish employees "a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees".
Unfortunately many workplaces are inherently dangerous. If the hazards can not be engineered out they must be controlled. Part of the control involves hazard recognition and training. Employees need to learn to properly wear PPE. They also need to be trained to recognize the dangers of the workplace, and how to avoid those dangers. This training needs to be done both initially and also constantly throughout the year.
If a company truly believes, and just as importantly, shows that safety is a very important part of the job, so to will the employees.
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