What is WOSHTEP?
The Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program (WOSHTEP) is an exciting statewide initiative aimed at reducing occupational injuries and illnesses and workers' compensation costs in California workplaces. Its purpose is to promote injury and illness prevention through training and dissemination of materials by a statewide network of training providers.
WOSHTEP activities target employers, workers, and the workers' compensation community, with a common goal of promoting positive, healthy employment. They serve a variety of industries, and participants come from diverse occupations and work settings. Special emphasis is placed on occupational groups with special needs, such as those who do not speak English as their first language, workers with limited literacy, young workers, and other traditionally underserved industries or groups of workers.
The program was created under Labor Code Section 6354.7 in 2002 as part of workers' compensation reform. It is coordinated by the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation and implemented by resource centers at the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley (LOHP), the Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program at UCLA (LOSH), and the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at UC Davis (WCAHS).