Prevention Each Day Keeps the Inspector Away

Understanding occupational safety and health enforcement

By Sean Dewalt

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 authorized the US Secretary of Labor to set “mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to businesses affecting interstate commerce, and by creating an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission for carrying out adjudicatory functions under the Act.” This act, also known as the WilliamsSteiger Occupational Safety and Health Act, gave the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sweeping powers to create minimum safety standards, interpret these standards, and enforce these standards through administrative procedure.

The act also provided an avenue where states could adopt their own programs with federal approval, monitoring, and oversight. These state plans “must be at least as effective as OSHA in protecting workers and in preventing work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths.” The Alaska Occupational Safety and Health statutes, AS 18.60.010 - 105, became effective on July 24, 1973. Alaska completed the development steps by creating the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health (AKOSH) section within the Alaska Department of Labor. The state plan received final approval by the US Department of Labor on September 26, 1984.

OSHA continues to have authority over large segments of Alaska workplaces, including all military installations, national parks, the US Postal Service, offshore oil platforms, and longshoring at cargo ports. AKOSH has jurisdiction over most general industries, including city and state employers, land-based oil and fish processing, and construction.

It is important to understand that AKOSH has program directives. These programs dictate a fair amount of what AKOSH focuses on for inspections and detail the purpose and scope of the directive. Many of these directives last several years and can range from a local or national emphasis program to reduce and/or eliminate occupational safety and health hazards in the construction industry to recordkeeping regarding COVID-19 for healthcare employers. Knowing AKOSH’s priorities allow an organization to increase awareness of the potential enforcement visit and tighten up safety plans and programs, educate company safety committees, and increase or enhance training for affected employees.

Be Normal

Another AKOSH directive is the high hazard targeting system, a programplanned system to assess target selection for enforcement inspections. This program enables AKOSH to quickly assess which employers have higherthan-normal rates of loss time incidents. According to the rule, “Employers with three or more lost time incidents as reported through the Alaska Division of Workers’ Compensation database for the previous year shall be identified and placed on a list. Each employer will then be evaluated based on the number of loss time incidents in comparison to the number of workers employed to determine the employer’s loss time rate per 100 employees. Those employers with lost time rates in excess of 90 percent of the overall average loss-time rate for all employers in Alaska as outlined in the AKOSH Performance listed for the most recent fiscal year shall be placed on a targeted list of employers.” A letter is sent to the employer as notice that there is a high likelihood of an AKOSH enforcement inspection resulting from the number of loss time incidents.