Today's Safety News

Employee interviews to be part of OSHA's recordkeeping scrutiny campaign; incentive contests judged to discourage reporting to be factored into penalties (10/5)

OSHA’s new National Emphasis Program (NEP) to ensure and promote the accuracy of workplace injury and illness recordkeeping is bound to attraction attention in the coming months as the agency begins to publicize violators.

Here are several aspects of the recordkeeping accuracy inspection program worth noting:

The NEP is scheduled to run for one year, beginning September 30, 2009.
Approximately 300 worksites will be inspected as part of the NEP nationwide. The poultry processing industry will get particular attention.
OSHA postulates the most likely places where under-recorded injuries and illnesses may exist would be low rate establishments operating in historically high rate industries. The NEP will pilot test OSHA’s ability to effectively target establishments to identify under-recording of occupational injuries and illnesses.
Review of OSHA’s inspection history shows that the vast majority of major cases involving recordkeeping violations were generated from complaint and referral inspections. This NEP will be OSHA’s initial attempt to target the issue of under-recording for programmed inspections.
The NEP will initially pilot several inspections of construction employers to better understand how to approach this industry on a broad scale.
The Office of Statistical Analysis (OSA) will provide each area office with a list of establishments to be inspected. An area office will receive no more than five assignments for this pilot test.
Citations for recordkeeping violations found shall be classified as other-than-serious with proposed penalties appropriate to the circumstances in each case. If violations are characterized as “willful,” “repeat,” or “failure to abate,” the regional administrator or regional solicitor should be contacted for guidance.
When determining the classification of the citation, the inspector shall take into account the existence of incentive or disciplinary programs that potentially affect the recording of injuries and illnesses.
If an establishment is an approved participant in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), or in OSHA Consultation’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP), it is to be deleted from the inspection list.
This NEP is not intended to include establishments that are only offices. Therefore, if a CSHO arrives at an establishment and discovers that there is only an office at the site, the CSHO should not conduct the inspection. The CSHO shall verify that the injury and illness data pertains to the office location only and is not associated with production facilities.
If the injury and illness data pertains to a production facility, conduct the inspection if the facility is in the compliance officer’s office’s jurisdiction.
The compliance officer shall interview the designated recordkeeper regarding the manner in which injuries and illnesses are recorded at the establishment. The purpose of this interview is to assess each recordkeeper’s knowledge of the OSHA injury/illness recordkeeping requirements and to determine whether recordkeeping problems exist. The inspector shall use the recordkeeping procedures questionnaire, included in Appendix C. of the directive.
If the inspector learns of any company policies that may have the effect of discouraging recording on the injury and illness records, these should be noted in the comments section of the questionnaire. For example, if the inspector learns that there is an awards program tied to the number of injuries and illnesses recorded on the OSHA Log, the program is to be described in the comments section. If it is determined that these are written procedures, the inspector shall obtain a copy of the employer’s policy.
A sub-sample of employees must be interviewed using the Employee Questionnaire contained in Appendix C. Any specified injury or illness not identified in the records review must be investigated. A sub-sample of employees to be interviewed must be selected from the list of employees establishments with 100 or fewer employees, conduct at least 10 interviews. For establishments with 101 to 250 employees conduct at least 15 interviews. For establishments with more than 250 employees, conduct at least 20 interviews.
The selection of employees to interview is not random. The inspector will focus interviews on employees likely to be injured or become ill. The informant privilege allows the government to withhold the identity of individuals who provide information about the violation of laws, including OSHA rules and regulations. Inspectors shall inform employees that their statements will remain confidential to the extent permitted by law. However, each employee giving a statement should be informed that disclosure of his or her identity may be necessary in connection with enforcement or court actions. The inspector shall document how employees were selected for interview, and indicate which selected individuals were not available for interview and why.
The inspector shall interview management representatives regarding the manner in which injuries and illnesses are recorded at the establishment and to determine the existence of incentive or disciplinary programs that may influence recordkeeping. This interview should also seek to determine the extent to which management may influence medical treatment of injured or ill employees and to determine whether recordkeeping problems exist. The inspector shall use the questionnaire included in Appendix C.
The inspector shall interview staff who participated in first-aid or medical treatment of employees with occupational injuries or illnesses to determine the consistency of information regarding the manner in which injuries and illnesses are recorded at the establishment and to determine the existence of incentive or disciplinary programs that may influence recordkeeping.
This interview should also seek to determine the extent to which management may influence medical treatment of ill or injured employees for the purposes of modifying OSHA recordability and to determine whether recordkeeping problems exist. The inspector shall use the questionnaire included in Appendix C.