Legal Aspects of Safety and Health
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) offer employees several essential rights. One of them is the right to file complaints with OSHA regarding their workplace safety as well as health conditions (Bailey, 2008). Therefore, first I will welcome the OSHA inspector into the office and tell him/her that the plant manager is away attending important meetings. I will also listen to him/her regarding the complaints raised by the employee. At the same time, I will try to explain to the inspector about the major renovations taking place in the area where the complaining employee works. I will not challenge the OSHA inspector’s validity or right to enter the workplace. This is because the Act offers OSHA various regulatory functions, including carrying out inspections to make sure that employers provide healthy and safe workplaces (Bailey, 2008). The Act also stipulates that every business it covers is subject to inspection by the OSHA compliance safety and health officers. Refusing entry can also harm the company’s reputation with OSHA, the public, and the press that might view the company as an unsafe and as having something to ‘hide’ (Bailey, 2008). Additionally, I will not request the inspector to produce a warrant to enter the workplace. I will also not ask the OSHA inspector to produce his/her credentials. The warrant is a vital threshold determination that should only be made after consulting the company’s OSHA attorney. In addition, forcing the OSHA inspector to obtain a warrant might lead to closer scrutiny of the workplace along with a high number of OSHA fines and citations issued after the inspection (Bailey, 2008). Additionally, in most cases OSHA is able to meet the low requirement for getting search warrants. The Act itself also offers OSHA the mandate to conduct health safety inspections at workplaces.
It is very important to always ensure that everything is in order in any workplace. This will help ensure that the workers are both safe and healthy (Friend & Kohn, 2010). The other aspect is to ensure that no time is wasted in ensuring that everything is okay. However, it may be important for me to first gain some time to check with my in-area safety supervisor. This is because the safety supervisor is responsible for maintaining various tasks associated with workplace safety (Friend & Kohn, 2010). The in-area safety supervisor is also familiar with the procedures of OSHA inspection; therefore, the in-area inspector will be the appropriate person during the inspection. The tasks on safety supervisor also include performing safety inspections in different areas or departments in the workplace. The safety supervisors are also responsible for ensuring that the company complies with all the safety-related regulations, including OSHA standards (Friend & Kohn, 2010). The safety supervisor will be indispensable in resolving the matter at hand since it mainly concerns the health and safety of the workplace. I will immediately comply with the inspector’s request to conduct the inspection. Additionally, I will accompany the inspector during the first walk around and the subsequent inspections within the entire firm. First and foremost, I am certain about the ongoing major renovations in the area where the employee who has filed the complaints works (Friend & Kohn, 2010). Therefore, I will try and explain to the OSHA inspector during the inspection about this renovation. During the inspection, I will explain to the OSHA inspector about the company’s safety rules as well as instruct the inspector on the emergency procedures (Friend & Kohn, 2010). However, I will try to disagree with the assertion that some conditions which are detected are OSHA contravention. This is because of the fact that accepting that indeed some violations exist might result into citations and fines. Moreover, I will pay closer attention to the questions raised by the inspector and respond to them carefully.
References
Bailey, M. A. (2008). Occupational safety and health law handbook. Lanham, Md: Government Institutes.
Friend, M. A., & Kohn, J. P. (2010). Fundamentals of occupational safety and health. Lanham, Md: Government Institutes.
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