Occupational Safety and Health Administration

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA) is a federal agency in the United States, founded on the enforcement of the Federal Labour Safety Act of 1970 as a result of new safety legislation ( the OSH Act ) on 28 April 1971. It should help reduce the number and consequences of accidents. The Authority is subject to the U.S. Federal Ministry of Labour. Since 2006 Head of the authority of the Under Secretary of Labor Edwin Foulke.

For the investigation of working conditions, the Act also imposed the creation of a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH; comparable with the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ) and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission ( OSHRC, as in German: Commission for the Investigation of accidents at work ) for negotiation of violations of the law firm.

In 22 U.S. states, there are state ministries and laws in this area. The American legislation provides for its taking effect before then, if national laws are at least as stringent as the federal law. In 29 states and the federal agency Mail ( U.S. Postal ) apply exclusively to the federal law. In Germany, the range of tasks corresponds to the Labour Inspectorate in the labor ministries of the countries and the Workers' Compensation Accident Insurance ( a branch of the statutory social insurance, known by the accident prevention regulations ); at European level about the Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

Provisions adopted

After it had come in the early years to the coexistence of various laws and judgments on the state and federal level, now a consistent handling has emerged. Some safety regulations in the field of industry concern:

In the U.S. export machine manufacturers from the EU area are mostly with the OSHA 29 CFR 1910, " Occupational Safety and Health Standards" ( also known as OSHA 2206 ) faced. The current official version is 2012, of several technical publishers, there are also ( at slightly higher prices ) commented versions, most of which are older by 1-2 years.

Effectiveness

In the 40 years of its existence, the Authority has fined companies in twelve cases of criminal offenses. The OSHA is accused among other reasons, it was equipped with an insufficient number of staff and rights. In addition, they have way too many years for the adoption of safeguard provisions required. Unions were virtually forced to sue the adoption of protective legislation ( An example is the Hexavalent Chromium standard).