OSHA in Utah

OSHA in Utah

Many of us are familiar with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from mandatory posters in break rooms and safety training. You may also know that OSHA's founding was a key part of the 1970 OSHA Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act that sought to mandate protections for American workers. But did you know that OSHA's creation saved lives by helping reduce work-related deaths by nearly 63%?1  OSHA, which is a part of the U.S. Department of Labor, is a federal agency that seeks “to assure safe and healthful conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education and compliance assistance."2

OSHA helps accomplish worker safety in specific ways. 

  1. OSHA mandates that employers create safe workplaces based on specific safety standards that must be met. 
  2. OSHA trains and sends inspectors to workplaces: these personnel may check if sites are meeting safety standards, follow up on specific safety complaints made by whistleblowers, or provide warnings, citations, or training for those on-site. 
  3. OSHA researches hazards and protections to develop new and better safety standards to meet changing needs, like new kinds of work, new kinds of workplaces, and new contingencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  4. OSHA works with individual states, employers, educators, and employees as warranted. 

Know Your OSHA Rights

While OSHA is a federal agency, there are also OSHA State Plans, which are workplace health and safety programs created and operated by individual U.S. states.3 A State Plan can have different requirements, but it must be at least as effective in ensuring occupational health and safety as the federal OSHA standards.4

Under OSHA law, workers “are entitled to working conditions that do not pose a risk of serious harm,” and they have the right to file complaints against their workplace, receive training about work hazards, and be protected from retaliation for making those complaints.5 Workers should know their OSHA rights and how OSHA benefits them. 

OSHA in Utah

Utah has had an OSHA State Plan since January 1973, and this State Plan covers most private sector workplaces in the state.6 Utah and other states that chose to create State Plans usually did so to meet the needs of industries, manufacturing sites, or populations unique to that state.7 Here, the thought is that a State Plan can provide better oversight than the federal plan for all states could deliver. 

Historically, there have been downsides to Utah’s having a State Plan. Even in the past decade, Utah OSHA inspectors have failed to levy fines against public employment or government sites (even when deaths occur), classify violations improperly, and issue overly low fines for infractions.8 Utah’s 2021 OSHA report also includes issues with investigating whistleblower complaints fully.9 These issues have led some workers to claim that the Utah OSHA is actually “Good for the boss, bad for me."10 In 2021, Utah was at risk of losing its State Plan altogether when it failed to adopt OSHA’S temporary emergency standard on COVID-19, which was meant to protect healthcare workers during an especially high-risk time.11 During this time, Utah’s OSHA division has also failed to respond promptly or inspect properly some workplaces accused of violating COVID-19 requirements.12

However, there are also upsides to Utah having a State Plan for OSHA. Safety standards can be developed to cover the industries that operate in Utah.13 Utah OSHA incentivizes safe workplaces by recognizing businesses that achieved zero injury incidents after following Utah OSHA standards.14 Utah’s OSHA State Plan offers great potential to create rules that apply to industries here and awards that celebrate safe workplaces, but must also be responsive to the needs of Utah workers and new hazards that arise.