Historically, OSHA has taken a “gotcha” approach to construction safety that emphasized punishment over prevention, random inspection over targeted enforcement. That policy began to change in the 1990s. One notable example: In 1998, the Clinton Administration began offering incentives to companies for finding and fixing safety problems before incidents occur.

The Bush Administration not only continued the collaborative approach but was criticized for emphasizing collaborative and voluntary efforts over traditional enforcement. As a result, the Obama Administration has considered rolling back collaborative programs and re-emphasizing the “gotcha” ways of the past.

A brand new report says that this would be a huge mistake, at least in the construction sector. According to a trade group called the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the OSHA collaborative approach to safety has been successful. The report claims that:

• The annual fatality rate for construction projects fell from 1,171 in 1998 when collaboration began to 969 in 2008, a 17% decline;
• In 1998, there were 1.7 fatalities for every million dollars invested in construction; in 2008, the rate declined 47% to 0.9 fatalities per million dollars;
• The construction safety incidence rate declined 38% from 8.8 incidents per 100 workers in 1998 to 5.4 incidents per 100 workers in 2008; and
• The injury absence rate for construction workers fell from 3.3 per 100 workers in 1998 to 1.9 in 2008 (a decline of 38%).

Of course, the AGC has an agenda. Its members are made up of construction employers who have an interest in seeing collaboration continue. But dismissing the report as political propaganda would be a mistake. Evidence assessing the effectiveness of government safety programs is something safety professionals and the workers they’re charged with protecting should welcome.

Source: AGC of America, http://www.agc.org/galleries/news/Construction%20Safety%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

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