Recently, I had a conversation with Gary Smith, Executive Director of theIndependent Small Business Association for the state of Washington. Garyexplained, "Cal OSHA has over 10,000 regulations for business in California. Thesmall businessman's job is to figure out which of those regulations apply to himand how to comply."Over 10,000 regulations! Several elements of this herculean effort are completelyimpractical. First, you must be able to find all of the regulations. This initself is not the easiest task. Google Cal OSHA. In the first couple of siteslisted is a ca.gov option (California's official website). After choosing it youwill be taken to a page that explains about the Division of Occupational Safetyand Health (DOSH).Nowhere on that page is an option for a list of regulations. There areopportunities to bring in consultants, there are links to other agencies, thereare videos, instructions on your rights and lots of other possibilities. But thereis not a list of regulations.I used the search method on the top of the page and entered "Cal OSHAregulations". The response was 5370 listings. None of the listings on the firstfew pages consisted of a list of regulations. The top result even gives tips forsearching. The problem is that you must already know what you are searching for.Secondly, you must have the man power to be able to go through he pages and pagesof regulations once you discover where they are. Hours must be spent just on theresearch, but the real time comes in reading the mammoth amount of paperwork.Thirdly, in the reading you must be able to understand both the technical aspectsof the regulations and the legalese involved. Paying the regular guy off of thestreets to come in at somewhat of an affordable rate to accomplish this task, evenwith very specific instructions, is not an option. A lawyer with expertise in thearena of occupational safety is required.The fourth element is in deciding which of all of these regulations apply to yourcircumstance. These decisions are sometimes clear but often completely subjective.One inspector may decide that the regulations are not applicable and the nextmight slam you for not complying.This conversation was only about Cal OSHA. There are also the federal OSHArequirements to consider. There are then 58 other agencies with which to start theprocess over again.My question regards where the obligation ought to lie. Ignorance of the law is noexcuse. We are told that over and over, but how are we to keep up and understandwhat the law is. The lawyers aren't even sure about that.Proposals like the plain English initiative are thrown out as panaceas for thisdilemma. If it were effective only step 3 would be eliminated and few think thatit would actually be effective.If Gary Smith is correct and there are over 10,000 regulations to go through justfor Cal OSHA, it is an impossible situation. If he exaggerated and there are lessthan 10,000, then the other agencies on federal, state and local levels make upthe difference.Wonderland was confusing and not particularly wonderful for Alice. She exclaimedthat, "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would bewhat it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is,it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"
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