The National Safety Council urges the House of Representatives to echo the Senate Appropriations Committee and fully fund the agency tasked with overseeing workplace safety for our nation.
A few weeks ago, many in the safety community greeted with delight the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee’s passage of its labor spending bill, which included steady funding for OSHA.
This news was heartening, in that it recognized the government’s vital role in protecting and promoting on-the-job safety for the 163 million U.S. residents who make up our nation’s workforce. Just as heartening is President Trump’s nomination of Dave Keeling, a proven safety leader, to head up the agency full-time, pending his confirmation.
Unfortunately, the promise of strong leadership and a preliminary spending bill are far from enough, especially given the President’s proposed budget, which suggests significant cuts to OSHA that would eliminate 12% of the agency’s workforce and reduce inspections by 30%.
Put simply, OSHA does not exist to punish businesses – it exists to help protect people. The National Safety Council urges the House of Representatives to echo the Senate Appropriations Committee and fully fund the agency tasked with overseeing workplace safety for our nation.
When OSHA was founded in 1970, the workplace fatality rate in our country was 18 workers per 100,000. By 2023 that number had dropped to just 3.5 per 100,000. This is because of the protections put in place by our federal government, and the recognition over the last 55 years that we all have the right to make it home from work each day. Even one death is too many.
The United States still loses far too many lives at work – over 4,000 every year. As the federal government explores ways to cut costs and streamline operations, we need to be clear: every single one of these deaths is preventable, and our government must prioritize its role in stopping them. Workplace safety is life and death; we cannot afford to cut corners in the name of efficiency. Already we’ve seen announcements that risk undermining worker protections, including:
Make no mistake, these regulatory changes and funding cuts will impact people’s lives – and could end up costing them.
I don’t deny there are strong arguments for reforming OSHA, many of which my organization (and some in the government) continue to push for. In critical areas its regulations are outdated, reflecting the types of work environments common five decades ago but less relevant today. The agency has at times emphasized enforcing compliance over enhancing capacity and building a strong safety culture. A better balance is needed. On top of this, it should do more to prevent the top source of workplace deaths: transportation incidents.
At the National Safety Council, we work with some of the largest and safest companies in the nation. They are deeply committed to the safety of their workforce, and while they do rely on federal government education, training and resources, many of them have moved far beyond the basic compliance OSHA requires into a more advanced level of workplace safety that both saves lives and supports a strong enterprise.
No doubt, OSHA requires significant modernization. But the need for reform should not be confused with a drive for downsizing, deregulation or elimination.
OSHA plays a vital, and too often unacknowledged, role: supporting the vast majority of companies in the U.S. that are not big corporations. Ninety percent of US businesses are small to midsize. These organizations often do not have the resources to create their own safety program nor to hire safety professionals or consultants. For them OSHA is a trusted partner in training, education, data tracking and providing tools and resources.
I know firsthand how true that statement is. I once lost someone on the job. A contractor, whose harness was not properly closed, fell from the roof of a hangar and died. The loss impacted our entire team and is something that remains with me today. The inconvenience of an OSHA violation is nothing compared to knowing someone’s family will never see their loved one again.
In addition to saving lives, safety helps a company’s bottom line. Studies have found that OSHA inspections reduce both injuries and costs, while enhancing savings.
In California, researchers with the Harvard Business Review found workplaces inspected by OSHA reduced their injury claims by 9.4 percent and saved 26 percent on workers' compensation costs in the four years following an inspection compared to uninspected workplaces.
The costs of injuries and fatalities – which average about $1.4 million per death – can be devastating for the small to midsize companies that most rely on federal agency support. OSHA provides them with free onsite consultation programs, training, best practices, compliance guides, and more. These services are increasingly critical as new and emerging hazards appear in workplaces nationwide.
OSHA is not just a regulatory agency. It is a lifesaving organization, without which many more people would have lost their lives at work in the five decades since its inception.
Let’s hope the news out of the Senate foreshadows a broader prioritization of workplace safety. In the meantime, we need advocates, businesses, leaders and the buy-in of the public to ensure this vital agency is not just more efficient, but more effective at protecting the safety and health of the parents, siblings, friends and loved ones who each day make their way to work, and who all deserve to make it back home again.
With a century-long legacy, the National Safety Council is a global center for safety expertise. Let's work together to align resources. We look forward to learning about ways we can join efforts to expand safety everywhere!
There are no items in your cart