by Brianna Crandall — October 25, 2013—The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently awarded $10.1 million through the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program to help protect vulnerable workers and those in industries with high injury and fatality rates. By ensuring that all workers and employers have the tools and skills to identify hazards and prevent injuries, OSHA intends to further advance a culture of workplace safety and health, and to eliminate the “false choice” between enhancing workplace safety and productivity.
The grants are going to 70 nonprofit, community and faith-based organizations; employer associations; labor unions; joint labor and management associations; and colleges and universities. The program provides one-year grants to fund education and training programs for workers and employers to help them: recognize workplace safety and health hazards, implement injury prevention measures, and inform them of their rights and responsibilities.
The Harwood program supports in-person, hands-on training, educational programs and guidance on creating training materials. Some of the intended beneficiaries of these additional resources for training are: small-business employers; workers and employers in industries with high injury and fatality rates; and vulnerable workers, including those who are young, have limited English proficiency, and are difficult to reach for various reasons.
Approximately $1.6 million in targeted training grants was awarded to 18 organizations not included in the FY 2012 program. OSHA has designated the following topics: fall protection in construction; agricultural safety, including grain handling operations; hair and nail salon hazards; ergonomic hazards; hazard communication for chemical exposure; injury and illness prevention programs; and workplace violence.
OSHA also awarded approximately $8.5 million in follow-on grants to 52 of the FY 2012 capacity building developmental grantees that performed satisfactorily during the last year, demonstrating their ability to provide occupational safety and health training, education, and related assistance to workers and employers in high-hazard industries as well as small-business employers and vulnerable workers. They are expected to institutionalize organizational capacity to provide safety and health training on an ongoing basis.
These 70 awards follow the recently granted $1.2 million in Susan Harwood Training Grants under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 to assist workers and employers engaged in Hurricane Sandy recovery and cleanup efforts in affected areas in New Jersey and New York. Over the past several months, grantees developed training materials and have been using the awarded grants to fund training and education to 5,600 workers and employers, and they will continue to do so over the next 13 months.
The Susan Harwood Training Grant Program is considered an essential component of OSHA’s efforts to provide workers in high-risk industries with training about job hazards and their rights. Since 1978, approximately 1.9 million workers have been trained through this program. The training grant program is named in honor of Susan Harwood, a former director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA’s former Directorate of Health Standards, who passed away in 1996.
