2018 NSC Congress & Expo

68 - Expanding and Revising OSHA’s Cooperative Approaches to Improve Worker Safety and Health (Room 362A/D)

23 Oct 18
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Tracks: Operational/Technical/Regulatory

Speaker(s): Doug Kalinowski, Director, OSHA Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs

Moderator(s): Ambrie Cwik, Marketing Specialist, VelocityEHS;

Worker fatalities are increasing, while injury and illness rates have remained mostly unchanged for several years. To address this, OSHA is working to modify its multifaceted approaches to better accomplish the goals of the OSH Act. This session presents several changes OSHA is considering to its cooperative programs that support industry efforts to improve worker safety and health. As part of these changes, OSHA is recalibrating its Voluntary Protection Programs to make VPP more inclusive and sustainable while improving quality and efficiency. In 2017, OSHA held two stakeholder meetings, opened a federal docket and established an internal team to review VPP to maximize its value. These activities sparked ideas on how OSHA could improve the way VPP helps industry reduce fatalities and improve injury and illness rates, including an emphasis on continuous improvement in workplace safety and health management systems.