OSHA Restructures Regional Offices, Merging San Francisco and Seattle Regions
The new office will now encompass the areas previously known as Regions 9 and 10.
- By Robert Yaniz Jr.
- Oct 04, 2024
OSHA has restructured its regional offices, combining its San Francisco and Seattle operations into a single entity that will replace what was formerly Regions 9 and 10.
According to a recent release, the move aims to streamline operations and improve service delivery. The newly consolidated area will now operate as the San Francisco region. This restructuring is part of a larger effort to enhance OSHA's ability to protect workers and assist employers.
In addition, OSHA has created a new region based in Birmingham to serve Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and the Florida Panhandle. The Birmingham office will be led by Regional Administrator Dorinda Hughes and Deputy Regional Administrator Jack Rector, who both previously oversaw Seattle operations.
OSHA continues to embrace using geographic identifiers in place of numerical region names. As a result of these change, several regions now have new designators which abandon numbers to instead anchor each region to a major metropolitan area.
OSHA’s restructuring aims to bring the agency closer to communities in need of support—particularly in the southeastern U.S.—and reduce response times to workplace incidents such as complaints, fatalities and imminent dangers. OSHA hopes the changes will better address expanding workforces and evolving business needs.
About the Author
Robert Yaniz Jr. is the Content Editor of Occupational Health & Safety.