Seeking a change in the health and safety culture of U.S. workplaces, OSHA administrator David Michaels, Ph.D., is calling for criminal penalties and jail time for fatal workplace injuries and egregious, willful violations of the OSH Act. Speaking at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ Professional Development Conference held in Baltimore last month, Michaels called the recent series of workplace deaths “shocking” and an “intolerable disgrace.”

 “We need to fix this. Current penalties are too weak,” he said, and received a round of applause from 3,500 safety pros when he said there should be criminal penalties for negligence that leads to a workplace fatality.

“Most employers want to do the right thing. But many others will only comply with OSHA rules if there are strong incentives to do so,” Michaels said. “OSHA’s current penalties are often not large enough to provide adequate incentives, and we are very low in comparison with those of other public health agencies.”

For example, in 2001 a tank of sulfuric acid exploded at a Delaware oil refinery, killing an employee whose body literally dissolved in the acid. The OSHA penalty was $175,000, but in the same incident, thousands of dead fish and crabs were discovered, allowing an EPA Clean Water Act citation of $10 million.

Clearly, OSHA can never put a price on a worker’s life, but Michaels wants serious violations that result in death or serious bodily injury to be felonies like insider trading, tax crimes, customs violations and anti-trust violations.

“Nothing focuses attention like the possibility of going to jail, he said. “Unscrupulous employers, who refuse to comply with safety and health standards as an economic calculus, will think again if there is a chance that they will go to jail for ignoring their workers’ safety.”

Though it will take an act of Congress to criminalize workplace deaths, ASSE and the AIHA have expressed support for increased penalties.

In testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), Michael Brandt, AIHA president-elect, said, “AIHA members put the health and safety of people first, and that is why AIHA supports stronger penalties and enforcement as well as good and reasonable standards. America’s workers deserve it.”

While he said OSHA is responding and adapting to 21st Century workplace hazards, Michaels acknowledged his agency does not have, nor will it ever have, enough inspectors, but it does have “more potential to change the safety culture in the workplace than ever before.” While he waits for action by Congress to strengthen the OSH Act, Michaels announced a week after his ASSE address that a Severe Violators Enforcement Program directive went into effect June 18.

The SVEP establishes procedures and enforcement actions, including increased inspections, such as mandatory follow-up inspections of a workplace found in violation and inspections of other worksites of the same company where similar hazards or deficiencies may be present.

Though ASSE generally supported the Obama Administration’s FY 2011 budget for OSHA and MSHA, it has urged Congressional leaders to restore funding of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program and MSHA’s Educational Policy and Development, which have been cut from the budget.

Michaels makes a good case for increased penalties for violators, but there has also been evidence of the effectiveness of outreach programs like VPP. With a new ‘OSHA sheriff in town’ making changes, it will be interesting to see over time which approach is more effective in changing the health and safety culture of the workplace.

We owe it to fallen workers and their families to find out.