New Jersey joined Connecticut and New York on January 10, 2001, as the newest of only three states to receive approval from OSHA to administer their own occupational safety and health plan for public employees. The New Jersey plan is the first new state plan since New York was added in 1984. Twenty-three other states have OSHA-approved plans for the private sector that extend coverage to state and local government employees.
The plan will be administered by the New Jersey Department of Labor with the Department of Health and Senior Services having responsibility for conducting health inspections. The program covers more than 470,000 public employees, including approximately 112,900 state government workers and roughly 357,100 municipal employees. Private sector employees remain under the jurisdiction of federal OSHA. New Jersey has adopted standards identical to most federal OSHA standards and has committed to bring all of its standards into line with OSHA requirements as well as to adopt all future OSHA standards and revisions.
