Are Your Workers Complaining to OSHA? It Could Get You Inspected

Today, many OSHA inspections are triggered by employee complaints. That’s just one of the reasons wise employers should respond promptly to employee concerns and, ideally, resolve them so that a worker doesn’t need to go to OSHA for redress.

Here’s how OSHA responds when an employee complains and what conditions can trigger an inspection.

Complaint Assessment

The process starts with a phone call to the complainant to help OSHA assess and screen the complaint. In the telephone follow-up, the OSHA compliance safety and health officer (CSHO) will try to narrow down the complaint and explain the relevant standard. The complainant may be asked:

• How long the hazardous exposure lasted
• When the hazardous condition or exposure last occurred
• If the hazardous exposure or condition is occurring now
• If there have been any illnesses or injuries involved
• If anyone has been to a doctor or a hospital as a result

Based on the interview, the CSHO will send the complaint to an assistant area director, who reviews it and decides if more information is needed and if it warrants a visit.

---

Free Safety Webinar Tuesday April 28th! How to Use a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) to Reduce Combustible Dust Explosion Risk. Click here to join today!

---

Off-Site Investigation

If the complaint is by a former employee and does not involve an immediate risk, a phone-and-fax process may be used to conduct an off-site investigation. In such cases, OSHA takes the complaint by phone and faxes the information to the employer, who communicates with OSHA about what needs to be done. Some of these “phone and fax” inspections are followed up by an on-site visit as a way to monitor the information being conveyed by the employer.

Will OSHA Come to My Site?

In order for an employee complaint to trigger an on-site inspection, at least one of the following eight criteria must be met:

1. A written, signed complaint by a current employee or employee representative with enough detail to enable OSHA to determine that a violation or danger likely exists that threatens physical harm or that an imminent danger exists
2. An allegation that physical harm has occurred as a result of the hazard and that it still exists

---

In this free webinar: How to Use a Process Hazard Analysis to Reduce Combustible Dust Explosion Risk, we will discuss methods for determining if your dust is combustible and how much dust presents a hazard. Click here to register now!

---

3. A report of an imminent danger
4. A complaint about a company in an industry covered by one of OSHA’s local or national emphasis programs or a hazard targeted by one of these programs
5. Inadequate response from an employer that has received information on the hazard through a phone/fax investigation
6. A complaint against an employer with a past history of egregious, willful, or failure-to-abate OSHA citations within the past 3 years
7. Referral from a whistleblower investigator
8. Complaint at a facility scheduled for or already undergoing an OSHA inspection

For more information on dealing with safety issues raised by workers, check out Safety.BLR.com®.