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OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH COVERAGE OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT WORKERS IN FEDERAL OSHA STATES IS INADEQUATE
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Unless otherwise stated, the audit reports provided on this web page reflect the
findings of the OIG at the time that the audit report was issued. The auditee may
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] Responsibility for the nation s occupational safety and health
program is divided between the Federal Government, through the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and those states that have DOL-approved
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) plans. The state-run programs are
administered and operated with federal approval and generally cover both
private- and public-sector employers. In states that rely on the Federal
Government for enforcement, state and local government employees are excluded
from overage under the OSH Act where the state does not have an approved OSH
plan. Consequently, some state and local government employees do not have
adequate safety and health protections in the workplace.
Twenty-nine states and territories do not have the authority to
operate state OSH plans. Our audit found that 17 of the 29 states lacked
some important elements of an adequate public-sector safety and health
program, including two states (Alabama and Delaware) that had no program.
We also found that nine states do not extend workplace safety and health
coverage to their approximately 2.3 million local government workers.
Furthermore, there is little information compiled and readily available to
evaluate injuries and illnesses in the public workplace for the Federal OSHA
states.
Our audit concluded that there are significant disparities
among the states in the levels of OSH protections provided to public-sector
workers within the Federal SHA states. We found significant lapses in the
scope, depth, and degree of coverage. Although several states we examined
have established risk-control offices and various other programs to control the
costs of workplace injuries and illnesses in the public sector, their efforts
are only part of the solution. These programs do not provide the kind of
comprehensive safeguards afforded other state and local government workers that
enhance workplace safety and healthful workplace conditions.
We recommended that OSHA:
" seek amendments to the OSH Act to provide specific coverage
for all public-sector workers;
" encourage those states with programs lacking the most basic
protections and those states missing important program elements to seek the
necessary state legislation and policies to protect the health and safety of
their public workers adequately; and
" establish a clearinghouse to publicize the best practices
used by other state programs.
OSHA generally agreed with our conclusions and
recommendations, and we will continue to work with the agency to identify
solutions.
(OA Report No. 05-00-001-10-001, issued February 9,
2000)
[ Get Complete Report PDF ] 32 pp. {68 k}
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