OSHA: Restructuring of Regional Offices Is Complete
OSHA announced on Oct. 1 that it has completed changes to its regional operations, including the creation of a new regional office based in Birmingham, Alabama, which will oversee OSHA operations in that state as well as in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and the Florida panhandle. The new Birmingham Region is intended to address the area’s growing worker population and its needs in industries like food processing, construction, heavy manufacturing, and chemical processing, OSHA explained when it first outlined these changes. The agency also merged two regions to create a new San Francisco Region and renamed all its regions to associate them by geography instead of by assigned numbers.
“OSHA's restructuring is intended to bring its offices closer to communities in need of services, and strengthen the agency's presence in the southeastern U.S.,” the agency’s news release states. “The agency also anticipates the restructuring will reduce its response time to complaints, fatalities, imminent danger, and significant events.”
OSHA’s Dorinda Hughes, who has been with the agency since 1991, will serve as regional administrator of the Birmingham Region. Hughes previously served as a deputy regional administrator, area director, and assistant area director. Jack Rector, who joined OSHA in 2003 and has previously served as an assistant area director and area director, will be the new region’s deputy regional administrator.
The new San Francisco Region was created by merging Regions 9 and 10 and is intended to help improve OSHA’s ability to “deploy resources and serve workers.” OSHA Region 9 previously included American Samoa, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington previously made up Region 10.
OSHA’s new regional designations will be the Boston Region, the New York City Region, the Philadelphia Region, the Atlanta Region, the Chicago Region, the Dallas Region, the Kansas City Region, the Denver Region, the San Francisco Region, and the Birmingham Region. A table in the agency’s news release and a map from the OSHA website outline the new regional structure and boundaries.
