(a) The Legislature has determined that in order for the Territory to better protect its public-sector workers, it should retain the duties of regulation and enforcement of rules in places of public employment by formulating and obtaining federal approval for a Public Employee Only State Plan under section 18 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. 667.
(b) The Legislature declares it to be its purpose and policy, through the exercise of its power to regulate commerce within the Territory of the Virgin Islands and to provide for the general welfare, to assure so far as possible every public sector employee in the Territory safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources by:
(1) encouraging public sector employers and employees in their efforts to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards at their places of employment, and to stimulate public sector employers and employees to institute new programs and to perfect existing programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions;
(2) providing that public-sector employers and employees have separate but dependent responsibilities and rights with respect to achieving safe and healthful working conditions;
(3) authorizing the Commissioner of Labor to set or adopt mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to public-sector workplaces within the Virgin Islands;
(4) building upon advances already made through public-sector employer and employee initiatives for providing safe and healthful conditions;
(5) providing for research in the field of occupational safety and health, including the psychological factors involved, and by developing innovative methods, techniques and approaches for dealing with local, occupational safety and health problems;
(6) exploring ways to discover latent diseases, establishing casual [sic] connections between diseases and work in environmental conditions, and conducting other research relating to health problems, in recognition of the fact that occupational health standards present problems often different from those involved in occupational safety;
(7) providing medical criteria that will assure insofar as practicable, that no public-sector employee will suffer diminished health, functional capacity, or life expectancy as a result of his work experience;
(8) providing training programs to increase the number and competence of personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health;
(9) providing an effective enforcement program that shall include a prohibition against giving advance notice of any inspection, and sanctions for an individual violating this prohibition;
(10) providing for appropriate reporting procedures with respect to occupational safety and health which will help achieve the objectives of this chapter and accurately describe the nature of the occupational safety and health problems; and
(11) encouraging joint labor-management efforts to reduce injuries and diseases arising out of employment.