Efforts to Ensure Qualified Fed OSH Professionals Advance
A too often overlooked issue in occupational safety and health are the qualifications of those responsible for managing safety, health and environmental risks on a worksite. For federal workplaces, Nancy McWilliams, CSP, ARM, a federal safety and health professional and former ASSE President, reported a significant advancement in efforts to ensure the federal government hires qualified safety and health professionals. Among ASSE members and other safety and health professionals working for the federal government, concern has been growing that inadequately qualified individuals are being hired in GS-0018, Safety and Occupational Health Management Job Series positions, compromising federal agencies’ ability to manage appropriately safety and health risks to federal employees.
On September 29, 2011, the Secretary of Labor approved reports from OSHA’s Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH) and sent to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) recommendations to improve the current qualification standards for the GS-0018 job series. The Secretary requested that OPM review the issue and recommendations outlined in the FACOSH report, Recommendations for Consideration by the Secretary of Labor on the GS-0018, Safety and Occupational Health Job Series.
The recommendations were developed by FACOSH’s Training Subcommittee, which worked between the fall of 2010 through the spring of 2011 to determine whether current qualifications in the GS-0018, Safety and Occupational Health Management Job Series were adequate to ensure that federal agencies could hire appropriately skilled and prepared GS-0018s. The current requirements were written in 1980 (http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/Standards/IORs/gs0000/0018.htm). The subcommittee’s recommendations, which FACOSH adopted and the Secretary sent to OPM are
- FACOSH recommends that the Secretary of Labor request that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) delete the option of using experience alone as a qualification for the GS-0018, Safety and Occupational Health Management job series and require education and/or professional certification as a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals, Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) from the American Board of Industrial Hygiene, or a Certified Health Physicist (CHP) from the Academy of Health Physics as a qualification.
- As a result of adding positive education requirements to the GS-0018, Safety and Occupational Health Management job series, FACOSH recommends that the Secretary of Labor request that OPM move the GS-0018, Safety and Occupational Health Management job series, from the Administrative Series to the Professional Series.
- FACOSH recommends that the Secretary of Labor request that OPM include the phrase “from an accredited college or university” with the positive education requirements, such as a bachelor’s or higher level degree [as stated in the current qualifications], or an associate’s or higher level degree in occupational safety from a college or university accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. (http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html)
- The introduction of positive education requirements to the Safety and Occupational Health Manager, GS-0018, series could result in a negative impact on incumbents. FACOSH recommends that the Secretary of Labor request that OPM create no adverse impact to current GS-018s (who do not have a college degree) as a result of including education as a qualification requirement for the GS-0018, Safety and Occupational Health Management job series.
- To help employees currently in the GS-018 job series meet the education requirements, FACOSH recommends that the Secretary of Labor request that OSHA convene a working group with representation from Federal agency Safety Directors to develop a model career management plan that would describe career advancement opportunities across an agency, identify the training and experience needed for advancement, and develop a mechanism to include the training in the employees’ individual training plans.