Legal Ease Responding to an OSHA Inspection By Richard D. Alaniz
complaint or a programmed wall-to-wall inspection, being prepared beforehand will help limit exposure and help defend against any citations that may be issued. A very basic first step is to review and update as necessary the written safety plan for your facility. Such plans have been long mandated in some states, and are clearly a necessity in today's workplace no matter the industry. In conjunction with updating the plan, it is important to develop a protocol for responding to a potential OSHA inspection. Make sure that your receptionist or front office knows whom to contact when that Compliance Officer comes to the door. If you do not have a Safety Director, designate a specific manager(s) to take the lead and make sure that he/she knows exactly how you expect the inspection to proceed from the company's perspective. Be sure to confirm that your OSHA 300 logs are up to date and posted as required. They will be reviewed as part of any inspection. Likewise, have Safety Committee minutes organized and readily available for review as well. If the inspection is in response to a recent workplace accident, you should also have the incident investigation notes and related material readily available.
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Warrant or Warrantless Inspection Since at least 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that an employer may require OSHA or its state counterpart to obtain a warrant to conduct an inspection of an employer's premises. Whether to insist upon a warrant is a significant decision that has, as one might expect, serious pros and cons. Among the more significant pros is the possibility of limiting the scope of the inspection and possible dismissal of citations unrelated to the specifics of the warrant. A frequently cited con is the potential that an irritated Compliance Officer, forced to seek a warrant, will strive even more
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hether an OSHA inspection of your workplace is triggered by a workplace injury, a formal
to find violations. While such conduct is clearly contrary to OSHA's inspection procedures, human nature may prevail. Unless unique circumstances are present, most employers do not insist upon a warrant and seek to be as cooperative as possible. Maintaining a cordial relationship with OSHA is always preferable. You and the Compliance Officer share the same goal — a safe workplace for all of your employees.
Controlling the Walkaround After reviewing your OSHA 300 logs, the Compliance Officer normally will begin the tour of your facility. An employee representative is generally requested to participate. Compliance Officers are permitted to ask questions of both employees and supervisors/managers as they inspect your facility. Your designated management representative should carefully note all comments and questions from the Compliance Officer during the course of the walk around. If any photographs and/or video are taken, your management representative should take the same photographs and/ or video. He/she should also exercise as much control as possible regarding the scope of the inspection without creating a confrontation. Unless it is a scheduled wall-to-wall inspection, it should be an inspection of limited scope focusing on the equipment or area that prompted the complaint or the accident that caused the visit. Permitting the Compliance Officer to have unrestricted access to inspect all plant areas and observe uninvolved equipment merely increases the potential for finding violations.
Conducting Interviews As part of any OSHA inspection, the Compliance Officer has the right to, and generally will, interview both employees and management representatives. Employers have a right to be present or have their attorney present at any management interviews. There is no right to be present at employee interviews.
However, unless there is an actual subpoena, employees are not obligated to participate in any interviews and the employer can so inform them. It is important that any manager or supervisor interviewed be truthful, but not volunteer information unrelated to the matter at issue. They should also request a copy of any statement that they are asked to acknowledge or sign. You should also ask any employees interviewed to request a copy of any statement they provide to the Compliance Officer.
Medical Marijuana, Workplace Injuries, OSHA and Positive Drug Tests A potential new concern is that in a routine OSHA inspection your drug testing policy may become an issue. Last year, OSHA published a rule prohibiting employers from enforcing a policy that required employees to submit to drug testing after an accident because the policy may discourage employees from reporting injuries. Currently, OSHA does not permit employers to have a policy requiring drug tests after every accident unless the employer is required to drug test employees due to some other federal or state law (such as regulations for drivers from the Department of Transportation). However, in June 2017 the Department of Labor issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to revise, reconsider, or remove portions of the rule. Therefore, the Trump administration may eventually revise OSHA’s current policies forbidding employers from conducting post-accident drug tests anytime there is an accident. The law concerning off-duty
marijuana use is also rapidly changing. Currently, drug tests for marijuana cannot gauge whether an employee was under the influence of marijuana at work because marijuana can stay in someone’s system for weeks, so employers may be deemed liable for accidents caused by employees that fail such tests.
Effective Closing Conference At the end of the inspection process,
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