Peter Vassalo is a nationally recognized authority on OSHA enforcement. Vassalo recently transitioned from a nearly three-decade career at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), where he held numerous roles, including Counsel for Special Litigation, to join Littler, the world's largest employment and labor law practice representing management, as senior counsel in its Washington, D.C. office. The conversation for ISHN’s All Things Safety podcast explores his significant career shift, his accomplishments at the DOL, and his insights into the future of OSHA enforcement and the challenges employers face.

During his tenure at the DOL, Vassalo was also the primary point of contact for enforcing OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard and led national efforts related to ergonomic enforcement. He also acted as the national coordinator for all OSHA matters involving potential criminal violations. We talk about his shift to private practice as well his experience with the DOL.

Career Transition and Motivation

Vassalo explains his move from federal service to private practice was prompted by a desire for a change after feeling he had "plateaued" and accomplished his major goals at the DOL, combined with challenging conditions for federal workers and an early retirement program. He had been considering the management bar for some time, fostered by relationships through the American Bar Association. Littler, with its diverse practice and the work he sought, proved to be the "best fit."

He notes the main differences in his new role are a welcome shift from managing staff and political issues to focusing on pure legal work: problem-solving and working one-on-one with clients to fix safety and health issues and make solutions sustainable. He describes the culture at Littler as more liberating, allowing for more initiative and creativity without the bureaucratic layers of the federal government.

"It really is allowing me to get back to being an attorney again,” he said. “And that's really exciting for me. And to be able to really sit down with clients and help solve their problems… that’s what I was looking for.”

Ergonomics and Amazon

Vassalo highlights his work on ergonomic enforcement as particularly important during this time at the DOL. He mentions his pride in settling a major case with Amazon, which led the company to commit to improving its ergonomics program. He views this as a significant accomplishment because ergonomics is a difficult issue that "really does affect most workers out there," causing chronic pain. Since Amazon is an industry leader, he hopes its efforts will "trickle down" to other employers.

On ergonomics: "It's just a really difficult thing to get your arms around, but it's something that really does affect most workers out there, you know, going and doing your job and then having chronic pain resulting from it and knowing that there are ways in which employers can do things to, you know, not eliminate, but minimize some of the exposure to those hazards to be able to make that big of an impact."

Insights on OSHA Enforcement and Trends

Drawing on his extensive experience across multiple administrations, Vassalo discusses the cyclical nature of OSHA enforcement under different political parties. He notes a general theme:

Republican administrations tend to focus more on compliance assistance, proactive and collaborative work with employers (especially small ones), and leveraging cooperative programs like VPP and SHARP. They reserve robust enforcement for "really bad actors."

Democratic administrations are typically "much more enforcement heavy," using heightened enforcement and numerous initiatives to emphasize safety and health issues and drive compliance.

Looking ahead, he predicts that under the current administration, the trend will shift toward cooperative programs and assistance. On the rulemaking side, he expects less of a push for major rules, in line with the deregulatory tendencies of Republican administrations, though work on heat exposure continues.

Advice for Employers

 When asked about the most common mistake employers make during an OSHA inspection, Vassalo says it's antagonizing the agency. His advice is to: "be professional, to cooperate to the extent that you can do it, tell the truth." This approach helps establish trust with the regulator, which can lead to a more constructive, less adversarial resolution of citations, ultimately protecting workers and the business.

“The biggest mistake that I've seen... is to try not to antagonize the agency... My best advice is, is to be professional to cooperate to the extent that you can do it, tell the truth."