Which workplaces are given the highest priority for osha inspections

Legal Aspects Of Safety And Health

OSH 3525, Legal Aspects of Safety and Health 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Assess Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rulemaking, enforcement, and adjudication processes. 1.1 Assess OSHA’s priority list for performing on-site inspections. 1.2 Discuss OSHA’s response to employee complaints.

Reading Assignment OSHA’s Field Operations Manual (FOM): Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Program Planning, pp. 2-1-2-13 Chapter 9: Complaint and Referral Processing, pp. 9-1-9-17 Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2011). Field Operations Manual. Retrieved from

https://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/Directive_pdf/CPL_02-00-159.pdf

Unit Lesson The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was formed in response to the passage of the OSH Act of 1970. OSHA’s primary purpose is to make sure workers in the U.S. have safe and healthy workplaces. In order to accomplish that goal, OSHA has been given the authority to pass regulations related to workplace safety and to enforce those regulations. OSHA also has the authority to inspect workplaces covered by the OSH Act to identify unsafe conditions and issue citations and fines when unsafe conditions are present.

OSHA covers about seven million workplaces. OSHA and the approved state programs do not have enough compliance officers to inspect every workplace in the U.S. on a regular basis. OSHA established a priority system to ensure that it manages its resources properly and still provides adequate oversight of workplaces covered under the OSH Act. OSHA established four inspection priorities: imminent danger, fatality/catastrophe, complaints/referrals, and programmed inspections. An imminent danger refers to a situation that could cause death or some serious physical harm. These types of situations will receive the highest priority from OSHA, including an immediate inspection. In some cases, OSHA can perform immediate actions, such as removing employees from areas where imminent dangers are present. The second highest priority for inspections involves fatalities and catastrophes. OSHA changes its policy for reporting fatalities and

catastrophes on January 1, 2015. The old policy required employers to report any fatality and any event resulting in three or more employees being hospitalized within eight hours of the occurrence. The new policy requires employers to report any fatality and any work-related inpatient hospitalization (only one person required), any amputation, or the loss of an eye within eight hours.

UNIT I STUDY GUIDE

OSHA’s Inspection Priorities

(Mollohan, 2011)

OSH 3525, Legal Aspects of Safety and Health 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

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Employees have a right under the OSH Act to file complaints with OSHA about what they believe are safety and health hazards or violations of OSHA regulations. The complaints can be either formal or non-formal. Formal complaints have to be filed by current employees or a representative of current employees. The formal complaint has to assert that an imminent danger is present or that there is some violation of an OSHA regulation that could cause physical or health harm to occur in the workplace. The formal complaint has to be written or the form provided by OSHA (OSHA-7) must be completed and signed by at least one current employee or a representative. The employee’s identity will remain anonymous upon request. The non-formal complaint does not meet all the requirements of a formal complaint. Referrals can come from a number of sources, including other federal agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state or local agencies, organizations, individuals who are not current employees, and the media. OSHA considers each referral and prioritizes the referrals based on an evaluation of the reliability of the source of the referral. OSHA uses the reporting of recordable injuries and illnesses each year to calculate average injury/illness rates for industries in the U.S. Industries with high incident rates are identified. Injury and illness rates for individual workplaces are compared to the national averages for similar industries to identify locations with high rates. These industries and individual locations are placed on high hazard lists. OSHA will program inspections of these high-hazard industries and individual work places whenever possible through the Site- Specific Targeting (SST) Program. OSHA may also inspect sites that are not on the high-hazard list when adequate resources are available. These inspections are typically performed using a random sampling method. OSHA inspections can also occur due to a site’s participation in a voluntary protection program (VPP). These special programs will be discussed in Unit VIII. The method OSHA uses in response to a complaint from a current employee or representative will depend on the nature of the complaint. For a non-formal complaint, initially OSHA may notify the employer by telephone, fax, email, or letter. The employer will be required to respond to the complaint, and OSHA will notify the complainant of the employer’s response to determine if the issue can be resolved. If the complainant can show that the employer’s response is false, or provides additional evidence that the complaint has not been resolved, an on-site inspection is typically performed. Valid formal complaints, especially those submitted on the OSHA-7 form that are signed, are typically followed up with an on-site inspection.

Reference

Mollohan, R. (2011, July 25). US Department of Labor [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/a6YuvL

Suggested Reading To learn more about OSHA safety violations and the complaint-handling process, review the resources below: Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (n.d.). Federal OSHA complaint handling process. Retrieved

from https://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/handling.html. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (n.d.). How to file a complaint with OSHA. Retrieved from

https://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/complain.html Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (1996). Notice of alleged safety or health hazards. Retrieved

from https://www.osha.gov/oshforms/osha7.pdf Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2011). OSHA fact sheet: Filing whistleblower complaints

under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha-factsheet- sox-act.pdf

OSH 3525, Legal Aspects of Safety and Health 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

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Learning Activities (Non-Graded) OSHA allows the public to search for information about on-site inspections that have been performed. Access the OSHA search page below, and find an inspection that is interesting to you: https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html You might look at inspections that have occurred at facilities similar to where you work. Hint: You can search by SIC code. From the information provided, determine which type of inspection was performed based on OSHA’s priority criteria. Did OSHA provide advanced notice of the inspection? Which types of violations were cited? What were the proposed penalties for this inspection? Were any of the violations downgraded? Were any of the penalties decreased?

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html