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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8151.
Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich wants to make it easier
for federal agency heads to help evaluate the safety and health of their
agencies.
Federal agencies normally file a lengthy annual report on
employee safety and health with the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA). This year Reich is asking agency heads to fill
out a survey instead. OSHA will then consolidate the data into the department's
annual report to the President on the safety and health of federal agencies.
Reich said the survey should be easier for agencies to complete.
Federal agency safety managers encouraged the use of the
survey in lieu of the previous lengthy report as part of the National
Performance Review reinvention efforts.
"We are very concerned that the number of injuries and
illnesses at federal agencies is increasing at an accelerating rate," Reich
wrote in his letter to federal agency heads. "Last year 180,000 federal workers
were seriously injured on the job, and 180 died."
Reich said he hoped the completed surveys would be a
better tool to assess the safety and health efforts protecting an important
segment of America's workforce, federal employees. The survey is due to OSHA by
January 29, 1996.
The 35-question survey asks about staffing to address
safety and health issues, whether there is a safety and health program in
effect, if periodic inspections or audits are being conducted, what challenges
face safety and health efforts, and other issues.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires
the Secretary of Labor to send the President an annual summary of federal
agency safety and health reports and recommendations for improving workplace
safety and health for federal employees. This year the report, the Annual
Report on Federal Occupational Safety and Health Activity, will be sent to the
National Performance Review Board as well.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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