Stages of Occupational Regulation: Analysis of Case Studies by Morris Kleiner

Author:Morris Kleiner [Kleiner, Morris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employmenbt Research
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PUBLIC POLICY APPROACHES TO OCCUPATIONAL

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Public policies on health and safety have generally taken two approaches: the regulation and setting of standards, and the implementation of social insurance through worker compensation. Illustrations of the regulation approach are the passage of the Coal Mine Safety Act in 1969 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970.

The federal government has played a major role in protecting the health and safety of the workforce. For example, miners have been at the forefront of occupational health and safety legislation, largely because they have the highest rate of injury and death, and also because they have gathered the most attention through the media. Media attention has occurred in part because many of the deaths and injuries involve large groups of miners who are affected in one incident, usually in dramatic fashion. In contrast, deaths and injuries in construction tend to occur to a much greater extent in small groups, away from the spotlight of public attention. The focus on miners develops even though construction workers are likely to have multiple times as many overall deaths and injuries annually. Recent data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that construction workers have by far the greatest number of deaths and injuries of any industry, and that they rank high in rates of injury and death (BLS 2011). The analysis provided in this chapter adds to the literature on occupational health and safety by examining whether occupational regulation complements current regulatory policies to promote workplace health and safety by reducing the occurrence and severity of occupational injuries. If occupational regulation matters in improving health and safety in this sector, then it could potentially influence other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, mining, or manufacturing, which also have high levels of workplace injuries.

Furthermore, occupational licensing gives a standard method of providing a service to include the health and safety of the workers that are involved in the industry. For example, in the case of electricians, about 10 percent of their class time is spent in discussions of health and safety, and numerous teaching units in apprenticeship programs are explicitly devoted to health and safety (Center for Construction Research and Training 2009); see Box 5.1 for examples of these requirements. The expectation is that workers who have this background on safety from both the classroom and the on-the-job training would incur fewer workplace injuries and deaths. One of the objectives of this chapter is to examine training requirements in more detail with respect to electricians and plumbers, two regulated occupations in the industry.

Electrician Labor Market

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