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The Washington state government requires every employer to post a Washington OSHA form to keep track of work-related illnesses and injuries. This form must be posted from February 1 to April 30 of every year. The form recaps work-related injuries and illnesses so that workers can gauge the safety of their company for a particular calendar year.

The federal government has a set of regulations regarding health standards and job safety that more than half of the states follow. Twenty-two states have chosen to opt out of the federal OSHA program, and Washington is one of them.

Federal regulations say that each state’s OSHA plan needs to be at least as effective as the federal OSHA. Most states follow federal OSHA standards, so the majority of state OSHA programs are almost identical to the federal program.

Since Washington has its own OSHA program, the Washington Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducts its own safety inspections instead of the federal government. It also offers occupational safety and health training programs. Just like the federal OSHA, the Washington OSHA also provides on-site consultation to help employers learn to see and fix any workplace hazards. This is a free service.

Every state does this, but California takes this process one step further. While the majority of states only make public workplace hazards stated in federal standards, California chooses to make public workplace hazards that the federal OSHA standards don’t cover.

Although a state has the option to have its own OSHA policy, the state policy needs to be approved by the federal government before a state can begin using it. The process for getting a state OSHA plan approved by the federal government begins with a developmental plan to make sure the state has the means to run its own OSHA, and ends in certification.

To get certification a state must assure the federal OSHA that it will be able to run its own effective OSHA within 3 years.