Los Angeles Workplace Safety Lawyer Perry Smith

OSHA and Workplace Safety

Under federal and state law, employers are required to look out for the safety and well-being of their employees. At the federal level, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, is one of the key agencies which oversee, regulate, and enforce job safety laws.

Created in 1970, OSHA’s task is to prevent injury or illness among employees by implementing safety standards and precautionary practices in the workplace. Though OSHA’s authority does not extend to cover public-sector (i.e., government-employed) workers, it does cover the majority of non-government employees and companies.

Over its three-decade lifetime, OSHA, its authority, and its regulations have frequently been at the center of controversy. The competing interests and viewpoints of Democrats and Republicans, labor advocates and business groups have often clashed when it comes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

This conflict has extended to the workplace, where employees and employers fight for their opposing goals. While any conscientious employee would feel obligated to report violations of safety code or other hazardous working conditions to either his employer or OSHA, such actions are, as one might imagine, very unpopular with employers. Though OSHA’s regulations prohibit retaliation against workers who bring health and safety hazards to light, enforcement of this prohibition is not always easy. Furthermore, OSHA’s enforcement powers are severely limited, and it can only pursue criminal charges when its regulations are willfully and knowingly violated, and when that violation leads to the death of an employee.

To learn more about safety in the workplace and your rights under employment law, contact Los Angeles workplace safety lawyer Perry Smith at 888-356-2529.