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Statement of Need: Worksite-specific safety and health programs are increasingly being recognized as the most effective way of reducing job-related accidents, injuries, and illnesses. Many States have to date passed legislation and/or regulations mandating such programs for some or all employers, and insurance companies have also been encouraging their client companies to implement these programs, because the results they have achieved have been dramatic. In addition, all of the companies in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program have established such programs and are reporting injury and illness rates that are sometimes only 20 percent of the average for other establishments in their industry. Safety and health programs apparently achieve these results by actively engaging front-line employees, who are closest to operations in the workplace and have the highest stake in preventing job-related accidents, in the process of identifying and correcting occupational hazards. Finding and fixing workplace hazards is a cost-effective process, both in terms of the avoidance of pain and suffering and the prevention of the expenditure of large sums of money to pay for the direct and indirect costs of these injuries and illnesses. For example, many employers report that these programs return between $5 and $9 for every dollar invested in the program, and almost all employers with such programs experience substantial reductions in their workers' compensation premiums. OSHA believes that having employers evaluate the job-related safety and health hazards in their workplace and address any hazards identified before they cause occupational injuries, illnesses, or deaths is an excellent example of "regulating smarter," because all parties will benefit: workers will avoid the injuries and illnesses they are currently experiencing; employers will save substantial sums of money and increase their productivity and competitiveness; and OSHA's scarce resources will be leveraged as employers and employees join together to identify, correct, and prevent job-related safety and health hazards.

Summary of the Legal Basis: The legal basis for the proposed rule is a preliminary finding by the Secretary of Labor that unacceptably high injury, illness, and fatality rates can be substantially reduced by getting employers to systematically comply with the existing duty to control hazards under sections 5(a)(1) and 5(a)(2) of the OSH Act.

Alternatives: In the last few years, OSHA has considered both nonregulatory and regulatory alternatives in the area of safety and health program management. First, OSHA published, in 1989, a set of voluntary management guidelines designed to assist employers to establish and maintain programs such as the one envisioned by the proposed safety and health programs rule. Although these guidelines have received widespread praise from many employers and professional safety and health associations, they have not been adequately effective in reducing job-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses, which have continued to occur at unacceptably high levels. Many of the States have also recognized the value of these programs and have mandated that some or all covered employers establish them; this has led to inconsistent coverage from State to State, with many States having no coverage and others imposing stringent program requirements.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: Costs and benefits have not been determined at this time.

Risks: Workers in all major industry sectors in the United States continue to experience an unacceptably high rate of occupational fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. In 1996 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 6.2 million injuries and illnesses occurred within private industry, and in 1997, 6,218 workers lost their lives on the job. There is increasing evidence that addressing hazards in a piecemeal fashion, as employers tend to do in the absence of a comprehensive safety and health program, is considerably less effective in reducing accidents than a systematic approach. Dramatic evidence of the seriousness of this problem can be found in the staggering workers' compensation bill paid by America's employers and employees: approximately $54 billion annually. These risks can be reduced by the implementation of safety and health programs, as evidenced by the experience of OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program participants, who regularly achieve injury and illness rates averaging one-fifth to one-third those of competing firms in their industries. Other benefits of reducing accidents include enhanced productivity, improved employee morale, and reduced absenteeism. Because these programs address all significant job-related hazards--including those that are covered by OSHA standards as well as those currently addressed by the General Duty Clause --the proposed rule will be effective in ensuring a systematic approach to the control of long-recognized hazards, such as lead, and emerging hazards, such as lasers and violence in the workplace.