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Parent Category: News

Category: 6 Blog

Created on Thursday, 11 August 2011 14:47

Written by Safety6

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) apparently has come to some conclusions.  Right or wrong we don't know, but he does make some interesting points... including those about VPP.

The Senator feels that Susan Harwood grants that fund training and education duplicate other OSHA efforts.  Eliminating some of these could save $11 million dollars.  He also thinks that the agency should lean towards employer assistance programs rather than continued resources being dedicated to enforcement while citing that OSHA's budget has increased over $70 million dollars in the past 3-4 years.

The report also comments about the benefits of VPP.  The response to the report has been varied with many being critical and citing a GAO report from 2009.  That GAO report addresses the difficulty in measuring the success of VPP.  What is absent from critics statements is the following question... How can companies voluntarily participating in a safety program be a bad thing for workers or for OSHA?  Especially with the understanding that it would be impossible for OSHA to perform a continually increasing number of inspections without also continually increasing their budget?

See what the Senator has to say about VPP below:

"Voluntary compliance programs, such as the Voluntary Protection Program (“VPP”), have a track record of efficient and effective outcomes in ensuring worker safety:

 Under VPP, worksites that pass the rigorous evaluation process have an average Days Away Restricted or Transferred (DART) case rate of 52 percent below the average for its industry.

 In recent years, smaller worksites have made significant strides in VPP participation, increasing from 28 percent of total VPP sites in 2003 to 39 percent in 2008, thanks to innovations such as the mentoring and SHARP programs.42

 VPP keeps employees safer; it also saves companies and the taxpayers’ money.43

 In 2007, Federal Agency VPP participants saved the government more than $59 million by avoiding injuries and private sector VPP participants saved more than $300 million.44

Given their success and cost efficiency, OSHA should emphasize voluntary compliance programs, while ensuring its limited enforcement tools are effectively targeted and carried out. Such reforms, while also returning OSHA to its FY2008 levels of $486 million, would save at least $72.6 million annually (FY2011 level is $558.6 million)."

Source: coburn.senate.gov