Keeling to head OSHA after Senate confirmation

On October 7, the U.S. Senate confirmed David Keeling as OSHA’s new Assistant Secretary of Labor.

During his confirmation hearing, Keeling stated that “nothing is more beneficial than collaboration between employers and employees” and shared his three main goals for the agency. They include:

• Modernization in regulatory oversight and rulemaking by moving beyond simple regulatory compliance and post-injury response, to injury prevention through informed design. This involves taking advantage of existing global industry consensus standards which have gone through much more rigorous review, regular updating, and continuous improvement.
• Expanding OSHA’s cooperation and collaboration efforts between professional groups, companies, and unions to achieve a common goal – employee safety. This also includes modernizing and updating OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs.
• Transforming OSHA’s Enforcement by using existing data to greatly enhance on-site safety efforts through predictive analytics. Other enforcement measures include engaging at-risk employers and employees through proactive risk mitigation and reduction programs before a worksite tragedy has taken place or fatality has occurred.

In collaboration with the Senate and other stakeholders, Assistant Secretary Keeling hopes to achieve these goals and ensure that all workers arrive home safely at the end of each day.