Ethics Mod 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics Mod 5 - Essay Example SHA asks employers in the United States to comply with its regulations to ensure that they provide safe and healthful workplace, and it constantly monitors strict compliance to these regulations by conducting inspections, whistle-blower activities, post-incident follow-ups etc. According to the norms of this act, employer is basically held responsible for employees’ falls or injuries that occurred due to employer’s failure to provide adequate safety and health measures instructed in the OSH Act. OSH Act imposes a duty on employers to take steps to control risks to employees or third parties from slips, trips and falls. However, employees are also held responsible for falls or injuries if it happened due to their mistakes, because they are under the duty to behave in a responsible way to ensure their own safety and the third parties near to them. Even after 44 years since Congress passed the OSHA of 1970 by strictly instructing employers to provide workplace safety, security and health to make employees free from hazards, the toll of workplace injuries and deaths still remain unjustifiably high. As of OSHA’s report, there were 4,405 death cases in the United States due to falls or injuries in workplaces in 2013 (osha.gov, 2015). Work injuries and hazards cause severe impacts on income inequalities and create a big burden of medical and other expenses on employees. In order to eliminate workplace injuries and its impacts, OSHA has not only made it stricter that employers are responsible for employees’ injuries, but also asked employers to become familiar with standards applicable for their establishments or workplace environments. According to many health and safety professionals today, simply complying with OSHA standards is not sufficient to safeguard all employees in the workplace. Instead, these professional s have developed extensive written compliance programs with which compliance is achieved and maintained as part of the all-encompassing safety and