Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Essay

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) - Essay Example For those that do, OSHA enforces workplace standards, regulations, and subsequently conducts inspections in relation to chemical exposure, injury vulnerability, safety procedures, protective gear requirements, and certain information availability to employees (Reese and James 71). Workplaces that do not fall under the jurisdiction of OSHA are regulated by other relevant agencies. Most importantly, violation of OSHA regulations attracts fines and/or jail time based on the safety and health provisions violated. Over the last four decades, OSHA has had to deal with many different criticisms that cut across the administration’s operations. One of the most criticized areas of OSHA’s activities is the ever-rising number of inspections in workplaces that fall under its jurisdiction. The number of inspections has kept rising, but the outcomes of such inspections have had little positive results to show. The idea of inspections failing to reflect improved results in workplaces often spur controversy over the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency. Accompanying the inspection criticism is the argument that follow up practices are lacking in OSHA’s system of executing its mandate. In this respect, many workplaces change little, if any, aspects of OSHA’s concerns. In the same regard, majority of workplaces correct their safety and health practices only in anticipation of inspection. Once these inspections are undertaken, employees could end up facing working conditions that are unsafe and unfit for their health for years. Even as OSHA strives to be as effective and efficient as possible, the workload of its mandate is simply overwhelming. (Mayer 145) contends that it would take the administration over one hundred years to inspect and ensure regulatory compliance in all workplaces that fall under OSHA’s jurisdiction. What this shows is that OSHA will hardly account