OSHA placing more of an emphasis on workplace safety culture

Orlando, FL — Although OSHA remains strictly a regulatory and enforcement agency, it’s recently started prioritizing safety culture.

Why?

“It’s where the rubber meets the road on how organizations live in the real world,” Andrew Levinson, director of OSHA’s Directorate of Standards and Guidance, said Monday during a presentation at the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo. “We recognize that we can’t get what we need out of safety and health programs without talking about safety culture.” 

OSHA is again focusing on safety as a core value. (It was also the theme of agency leader Doug Parker’s keynote presentation Sept. 17.)

Agency efforts aimed at reinforcing the idea is the launch of the Come Home Safe video series, which looks at workplace fatalities and the people affected by them.

“When we talk about safety,” Levinson said, “it’s not usually what’s going on in the workplace that motivates people. It’s ‘I want to get home to my wife, to my kids, to my husband, to my parents or to my loved ones.’ There are some really gut-wrenching stories. The statistics matter, but they’re not the story.”

In addition, OSHA is developing a leadership toolkit on safety culture and starting “Safety in 5” – essentially a series of toolbox talks.

“There are a lot of industries that don’t use that term (toolbox talks),” Levinson said. “We’re hoping to build out a library of hundreds of these.”

During the session, Levinson also provided a few regulatory updates. It’s a “safe bet,” he said, that OSHA will extend its comment period deadline (Dec. 30) for its proposed rule on heat illness prevention. 

He added that the agency’s proposed rules on infectious diseases, tree care and workplace violence in health care and social settings might appear in four to six months, at the earliest.