The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has completed changes to restructure its regional operations and created a new region to better protect workers and educate employers as businesses expand and workforces grow in communities in several southeastern states.
Among the changes is the creation of a new region based in Birmingham to serve Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle.
OSHA has also expanded its existing San Francisco region by combining operations that had been designated as Regions 9 and 10. The agency will now also use geographic designations to identify its regions rather than numerals.
OSHA has renamed the regions using the following designations:
| Previous Region | New Region | Previous Region | New Region |
| Region 1 | Boston | Region 6 | Dallas |
| Region 2 | New York City | Region 7 | Kansas City |
| Region 3 | Philadelphia | Region 8 | Denver |
| Region 4 | Atlanta | Region 9/10 | San Francisco |
| Region 5 | Chicago |
The newly created Birmingham Region will be overseen by experienced OSHA leaders, including Regional Administrator Dorinda Hughes and Deputy Regional Administrator Jack Rector. Most recently, Hughes and Rector led the agency’s efforts in Seattle. Hughes has served as a deputy regional administrator, area director and assistant area director since joining OSHA as a compliance assistance specialist in 1991, and Rector has served as an OSHA safety and health compliance officer, assistant area director and area director since joining the agency in 2003.
OSHA’s restructuring is intended to bring its offices closer to communities in need of services, strengthen the agency’s presence in the southeastern U.S. The agency also anticipates the restructuring will reduce its response time to complaints, fatalities, imminent danger and significant events.