OSHA’s Strategic Partnership Program (OSPP) for Worker Safety and Health is a federal initiative that seeks to reduce occupational fatalities, injuries, and illnesses as well as improve worker protections by engaging labor organizations, employer groups, individual employers and others in formal, cooperative relationships with OSHA to carry out the purposes of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The OSPP was first created in 1998 and it seeks to have a measurable, positive impact on the workplace by helping participants establish effective safety and health management systems, train managers and workers on the hazards common to their industry, recognize actual hazards at their work sites and eliminate or control these hazards. The OSPP will also create ways to share expertise and other resources among participating partners and establish goals and measures to evaluate the program’s impact on safety.

A prime example of a successful partnership is in Ohio, where OSHA and Allied Construction Industries, a trade association representing 500 companies, recently renewed their partnership to protect construction industry workers through increased training, daily work shift safety meetings, safety orientations and stand-downs designed to increase worker’s knowledge of hazards, required safety procedures, protective measures and equipment. Allied Construction Industries represents workers in the construction, concrete, masonry, sheet metal, electrical, heating and air conditioning and finishing trades.

If interested in partnering with OSHA, you may contact OSHA’s Regional Partnership Manager.