It's not a certification, but a certificate of completion. Employers are required to provide their employees with the knowledge necessary for a safe work place. This does not necessarily require them to
send each individual employee to an
OSHA safety course, but many smaller companies will have one person take the "train the trainer" type course so that he/she can then come back and train the rest of the staff.
One of the best ways to have the higher
ups get a safe facility is for them to volunteer for an inspection from
OSHA. When that happens, the inspector will not give out any fines, but will give the facility a written document of what they need to do to have a safe facility. Many employers don't want to do this because they fear that they are inviting in Big Brother instead of looking at a way to ensure the
safety of their staff. Also, many facility administrators are worried about the costs involved with making their facility safe. In reality, most of what needs to be done takes labor and that is all (organizing
MSDS, proper use of extension cords/relocatable
power taps, not storing things in front of
circuit breaker panels,
etc). It would likely take someone more versed in our industry to come in and verify things such as the locations necessary for fall protection and the systems required.
