What is OSHA?
What is “OSHA”? We hear about it all the time, especially in the warehouse business – OSHA requirements, OSHA standards, and so on. But what is it?
OSHA, which is short for Occupational Safety and Health Administration, defines and oversees the legal standards that employers must follow in order to provide a safe healthful workplace to workers.
Just as employers must follow the law, workers must learn and follow their workplace safety guidelines. The rules are there to keep everyone safe. Pay attention in your training courses and sessions, ask questions, and ask them again if you need to. Remember, it’s never a waste of time to learn new safety skills, as you may find they are useful in other scenarios.
OSHA Safety training - never a bad idea
If you hear a coworker griping about safety training, just remember that being trained properly to use different equipment and tools is the best way to keep yourself and others safe on the job. An employer could have the safest warehouse in town, but add one clown to the mix who thinks it’s funny to zoom around in a forklift, and that safety is gone. Look out for yourself and look out for each other.
OSHA history
In 1970, Congress created OSHA to “assure safe and healthful conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education and compliance assistance.” You can learn more here.
Final thoughts
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration:
- Provides safety training to workers in a language and vocabulary they can understand.
- Keeps accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses.
- Performs tests in the workplace, such as air sampling, required by some OSHA standards.
Under the OSHA law, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their workers.
