HR Management & Compliance

OSHA to Inspect Nearly 4,000 Work Sites Under 2009 Program

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on September 4 that it will perform comprehensive safety inspections at nearly 4,000 high-hazard workplaces. These inspections are part of OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting 2009 (SST-09) program, which helps direct enforcement resources to the types of workplaces that have the highest rate of injuries and illnesses.

OSHA will choose the workplaces to inspect based on its 2008 Data Initiative Survey of 80,000 employers, which provided data on workplace injuries and illnesses. The employers surveyed had 40 or more employees and were involved in industries with historically high injury and illness rates.

OSHA has divided the primary list of workplaces scheduled for inspection into three areas — manufacturing, non-manufacturing, and nursing homes. Instead of using the same minimum injury and illness rate for all three groups, OSHA has established a minimum rate for each group. It believes that using three different rates will allow it to inspect more work sites over the minimum rate in each area.

Although OSHA will inspect the workplaces with the highest injury and illness rates based on the 2008 survey, it will also inspect work sites that failed to answer the survey. By including such employers in its inspection list, OSHA wants to discourage employers from trying to avoid inspections by not responding to its communications.
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Is your organization prepared for an OSHA safety inspection? Learn what steps you can take by listening to the all-new audio conference “OSHA Turns Up Enforcement Heat: Safety Strategies You Can Use Now.” For more information, call (800) 274-6774.

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