The vast majority of employers DO do the “right thing” and OSHA and our workforce would best served if they focused on the bad apples (especially those hiring illegal aliens who do not know anything about safety).
If they did, the illegals would not complain anyway for obvious reasons - a vicious circle that occurs when a few illicit employers choose illegals over the many unemployed citizens.
But I digress.
OSHA was and is strictly an after- the-fact operation (except for VPP), closing the barn door after the horse escapes.
True EHS pros are pro-active, behavioral-oriented.
OSHA does a good job of ensuring compliance with standards but most standards were promulgated by industry to begin with. (Editor’s Note: These were ANSI standards adopted en mass by OSHA at its start-up in 1971. Since then, OSHA of course has published scores of standards and updated old ANSI standards.)