Final answer:
OSHA maintains workplace safety and health standards through actions such as adopting, amending, or revoking regulations, and carrying out regulatory enforcement, which includes inspections and fines to ensure compliance with standards.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) utilizes a number of actions to maintain safety and health standards in the workplace. First, OSHA is empowered to adopt, amend, or revoke regulations or standards to ensure a safe working environment. In order to adopt a new standard, OSHA must go through a comprehensive rulemaking process with substantial public engagement, which allows the agency to create regulations addressing specific hazards, and ensuring employers take feasible measures to protect their workers.
Secondly, if a regulation is found to be outdated or unnecessary, it may be amended or revoked, as seen in the case of the ergonomics standard that was repealed in 2001 through the Congressional Review Act. Lastly, OSHA is responsible for regulatory enforcement, which involves compliance officers conducting inspections, assessing fines, and following up on violations to ensure compliance with health and safety standards.
Within its enforcement capabilities, OSHA prioritizes inspections by the degree of urgency, such as imminent dangers and fatalities, and can perform them without advance notice. Employers are also required to follow General Duty Clause from the OSH Act, which goes beyond specific standards, to keep workplaces free from other serious recognized hazards.