Occupational Safety & Health

Every day, at least 13 workers die and 11,000 are injured seriously enough to require lost workdays or restricted activity at work. Although inconclusive, available information suggests that comprehensive safety and health programs can improve safety and health at the worksite. GAO found that concerns about these programs centered on implementation issues, rather than on program worth. GAO believes that implementation problems can be overcome if program requirements and enforcement policies parallel those in the states. In addition, many employers are already required to have written plans for specific workplace hazards, so comprehensive safety and health program requirements would entail little extra effort. Still, some uncertainty remains about the difficulty employers in different industries would face in implementing required programs. Data limitations on program burden and impact make it hard for GAO to recommend that these programs be required for all employers. Available information suggests, however, that the potential reductions in injuries, illnesses, and fatalities would justify any additional burden associated with implementing these programs, at least for high-risk employers with high injury and illness rates or a history of safety and health violations. In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration should collect enough information about impact and implementation experience to determine whether the requirement should be extended to other employers.

GAO found that (1) according to available information, which is not conclusive, comprehensive safety and health programs can positively affect work-place safety and health; (2) doubts about requiring employers to enact such programs mainly involve implementation issues; (3) although many potential implementation problems can be overcome, there is the possibility of certain employers with various work-force sizes and various industries having problems with implementation; (4) there are only limited statistical data regarding the potential burden and impact of required safety and health programs; and (5) a preferred approach could be to place safety and health program requirements on high-risk employers, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) could identify.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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