[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
So good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and and today we are speaking with Amanda Wood Lihow, who is with osha. So welcome to the podcast, Amanda.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Thanks so much. I'm happy to be here.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for making time. And so can you tell us a little bit about your background, your history, maybe your current position in osha, and then we can kind of get into some more detail.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Sure, Happy to do that. I am currently the Acting Assistant Secretary for osha. Before coming over here to the Department of Labor, I was a Commissioner on the U.S. occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, which is the administrative and adjudicative body that hears and decides cases when an employer contests a citation that OSHA issues.
So I was one of three commissioners serving from 2020 to 2023.
And prior to that, I worked as the labor and Employment Policy Director for the national association of Manufacturers. And prior to that, I was on Capitol Hill working for the U.S. senate Government affairs and Homeland Security Committee under the then ranking member, Senator Susan Collins. And I worked on a lot of labor and employment issues which encompassed osha. So I've really had a special place in my career for osha. I've worked alongside manufacturers. I've done legislative text writing and policy advocating. And now I'm here in the agency learning and helping the agency grow and protecting American workers every day.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Wow, that's quite a resume. I'm glad that you're in the position that you're in and that there's somebody out there looking out for people in the workplace. And so osha, which stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is part of the Department of Labor, right?
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Okay, that's correct. And what is the main function of osha?
[00:02:22] Speaker A: So I think the main function is one, we have sort of wear two hats. One is our enforcement hat, where we have many standards and regulations on the books, where we go out to see if workplaces are safe, we inspect. Sometimes we cite companies when things are not in compliance with those standards, whether it's a fall protection, whether it's not wearing personal protective equipment. But we also have a compliance assistance hat, too, where we try to go out and educate businesses from all types, larger businesses, medium and small size. And in my role, I'm trying to strike a balance with those, but also trying to emphasize that we are an agency that can help businesses where they are, whether you're just Starting out on your safety journey as a small business or whether we can help enhance larger businesses grow their safety culture.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah, excellent. So I know you have some special programs and I know our organization is involved in the the VPP and the SGA and all of that, but do you want to talk just briefly about what those programs are?
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Sure. We do have a lot of different programs. You mentioned the VPP.
That's our voluntary protection program and it's a 40 year old program and some folks don't know that it's out there to become a part of. So we're actually modernizing our VPP to include a new pathway to safety and health success. We're starting and reinventing what people know as OSHA Challenge, but we're now calling them safety champions. And that also will help our small businesses, as a small business might not be ready to commit to the full VPP program, but then they can also be recognized for being above and beyond in their safety programs and becoming a safety champion. I know that you all are part of vpp and I think it's a great program for companies like yours to be a part of to share your best practices. We also are developing a new pathway which increases more outreach to employers, especially again our small businesses.
We are expanding the use of our special government employees, which I know you all have used. We're incorporating leading indicators and we're also creating a new level in our VPP called the VPP Elite. And it's for those sites that have not only achieved the VPP status, but they've maintained it for over 15 years, which should be recognized as excellent and again, be sort of a guiding post for other folks starting off on this journey.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's an amazing thing. When I did a podcast with Mike Troutman and Chris Caperna last year, you know, we talked about most people kind of are fearful of OSHA coming. And we're like, no, come in. We want you to be here. We want you to help us do better. So I think it's amazing that there's different ways to interact with OSHA and different approaches to safety. And obviously, you know, you want people to go home at the end of the day and not be injured or hospitalized or even worse. So I think it's amazing. And so my team currently is part of the training culture here for our customer base and we do provide some safety training to our customers. But does OSHA provide training also?
[00:05:22] Speaker A: We absolutely do. We have several training sites across the country. We have nearly 30 ED centers to be specific. And we authorize nonprofit organizations like universities, labor unions and safety councils to deliver these OSHA courses. Outreach training programs I think that you all are familiar with is the OSHA 10 and the OSHA 30. And those are courses that provide entry level workers with basic awareness of the safety rights and responsibilities as they're starting off on their career. But we also have some 30 hour courses that are geared more towards the supervisors and other workers who have more tenure. This training is authorized and done not just by OSHA staff, but as I said, we have education centers around the country and training institutes.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Oh, wonderful.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Just also to add to that, we also have compliance assistant resources. So there's free training materials, we have fact sheets, webinars,
[email protected] so I'd encourage people to take a look at those as well.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
Oh yeah. I mean, it helps to know what you're supposed to know, right? You can't comply with what you're unaware of. So. So that's amazing. And so recently I read that some of the OSHA penalties have been reduced. Can you talk about that?
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks so much for that question. And I think it's a program that we talked about earlier in the summer and we're pretty excited about it. We updated the penalty and debt collection procedures again to support that compliance and prevention piece. It also focuses on prevention and prompt hazard abatement.
So these reductions that we've implemented are helping again with our small employers who don't have. We'd rather have them shift their resources into compliance and hazard abatement as opposed to paying penalties. So specifically, we're extending what was a 70% penalty reduction with businesses up to 25 and previously it was only applied to 10 or few employees. So now this is 25 employees.
We also introduced a new 15% reduction for employers who again immediately take steps to address or correct a hazard. And this just helps the small employers working in good faith with us to comply with our very complex sometimes standards and with some that have the penalties. But we want them to be able to again show good faith effort to us and try to abate those as quick as possible.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Recently, I know Mike and Chris Caperna attended the VPPPA national conference in St. Louis and you spoke about expanding the VP program as well as other outreach programs and the continued commitment Is there any other details other than what you've already mentioned that you wanted to add to that?
[00:08:26] Speaker A: No, I would just say I didn't mention that. We're also expanding the VPP safety and health management systems, which I know folks in the field know as shims. We're creating seven elements, so we're adding three to the current four. And that is something that many of the VPP sites, such as your company, are probably already doing. But we're trying to expand that again to get more attention and more folks into the VPP program. And I think building on these existing VPP framework, we are just developing new pathways that work sites can progress along as they improve their safety and health. And also just trying to encourage folks such as your company to share their stories with other folks in the same industry or maybe folks that you a smaller business in your community that you could say, hey, look, OSHA's out here, they have all these materials, but they also want to help you comply with the complex standards. So I did try to emphasize that at the conference that you mentioned. And, you know, I think it's important for businesses to share with one another.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we're part of a lot of manufacturing groups and things like that. And, you know, obviously we support our customer base and provide training resources to them. And so, you know, I'll dig into this too and see if we can offer up anything from our platform as well.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Great.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: And those are construction guys. You know, those are the people that are out installing windows and doors into people's homes and in big multifamily units or even commercial buildings. And so they're putting in doors and windows and they might be 10 stories up or five stories up or just even one story up. You know, there's a lot of things that can go wrong in those spaces. So we want to make sure our customers are safe as well.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Right. And that's so important because I think we encourage you all to do that. But we also, from your stories, want you to say OSHA's out there to help. And, you know, we're all working together on this for compliance assistance, but also just keeping workers safe to go home safe at night.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. So looking ahead, you know, if you had a crystal ball, let's pretend looking ahead and into the future of osha. What are some priorities that will be the focus in the next few years?
[00:10:34] Speaker A: I think we will continue on this path of compliance assistance. Engaging more employers and workers is going to be essential part of our efforts. We want to address Issues and new challenges. The workforce is changing, technology is changing. The tools and equipment we're using are not the same as they were even five years ago, let alone, you know, 20 or 30. So we're trying to adapt and change with that as well. So engaging our smallest of smallest to our largest of largest businesses can help get that message out. And I think the administration is also encouraging that type of collaborative efforts with businesses. We've been focused and want to continue on listening and hearing from employers and working with them as we try to come up with new, modernized regulations that are more efficient. We want to hear from you all as well on how we can improve on that because it's a team effort, it's a group effort of what we're trying to accomplish. And we're really excited for David Keeling to come on board, hopefully in the next few weeks. And I think Dave shares that vision of working together with businesses and trying to, you know, meet businesses where they are. Where are you on your safety journey? How can we help you? And I think that's going to be over the next year or two, is just continuing on that momentum.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Well, that's a good vision. I like it.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: So I have one more question.
If there is one thing that you could accomplish that would make a difference in workplace safety, what would that be?
[00:11:59] Speaker A: I think it's going back to what I've said. Getting out and talking to businesses, letting them know we are here to help, but also just trying to get the message out that we really want to modernize and help modernize safety programs. We want to see more participation in these compliance programs. We want to get the word out to adopt safety culture from the top down. Getting buy in from the employees, hearing from companies that they're calling their employees from the shop floor together around a table saying, what are you seeing in the workplace that we can do better about before OSHA even comes in to have an inspection? I think it's about going from a safety culture to a community of safety. And the community being, whether it's just your one business or as you mentioned, your customers spreading that word. And I think if we can accomplish that and workers are going home safe every night and our, you know, injury and illness rates are going down, I think that would be such an accomplishment while I'm here at osha.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be amazing. So I know we really appreciate the opportunity to partner with OSHA and state agencies as we continue on our quest to earn the VPP star. I know Mike has big goals that all of our locations will have that at some point.
They're working really hard. So I know this definitely has increased our knowledge of workplace hazards and has decreased our injuries, which is a win for everybody. And I love being able to share that with customers. Like, our goal is half the industry average, and we're below that. With some of our places having zero recorded injuries in well over a year.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: That's fantastic.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: It really is. And we're dealing with metal and class and really heavy products and machinery. There's a lot of ways that it can go bad here. So we have all the PPE and we have the vests and we have all the things, but you still have to be cognizant of your surroundings and just have that as the forefront of your mind. And so, you know, I think we're all in it together. Right. And I really appreciate your time. Amanda, is there anything else, or. I think we're good, right?
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Yes. No, I think I would just add is everything we do every day here in OSHA is to bring people home safe every day. And I think that's a common goal, not just with our agency, but with your business and businesses across the country. And I think that that's a great message and it's a great mission to get behind 100%.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Absolutely. All right, my dear. Well, thank you so much. Have an amazing day. Thank you for making time for this.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Thank you, too. And this was a great opportunity. I really appreciate the ask and happy to help you all anytime.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Awesome. I appreciate that. Have an amazing day.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: You too.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: All right, take care.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Thanks.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Okay, bye.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Bye.
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