An OSHA Visit...Learn From Others

by Lynn Larsen

Every once in a while I hear or see the aftermath of some well-meaning employer or employee trying to enlighten an official from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA/www.osha.gov).

Some of these tales are from personal experience; others are from well-placed sources.

Learn from the mistakes others have made and save yourself the aggravation of having to live your actions down!

Have a Game Plan for OSHA Visits

You may want to ask the inspector to get a warrant, which is your right. He or she will be back with the warrant in hand, and you may have bought yourself an hour or two, but you also may have set up an adversarial relation with the OSHA inspector.

It all depends on how you make the request. You set the tone for the meeting, so make sure it is to your benefit.

I heard of one company that sends everyone home if OSHA shows up.

If no one is working, then there is no inspection. However, cat and mouse games only will come back to haunt you, if you do get a citation from OSHA, in the total loss of any allowances for �good faith.�

One place had an OSHA inspector show up on an employee complaint, and the OSHA compliance officer was led throughout the facility with a person that appeared to be the boss.

The �boss� was overly helpful in pointing out problems. Finally, another person came out to the OSHA inspector and asked what was going on.

The OSHA inspector had inadvertently found the person that filed the complaint and the employee continued to grind the ax.

Make sure that everyone knows who will deal with OSHA, and have an alternate person designated to cover for employees on vacation or who have left the company.

Let�s Sit Down and Chat

Remember, even the nicest compliance officer is there for a reason.

You may ask for the reason of the inspection, limit the inspection only to parts that are mentioned in any complaint, and you may designate who goes with the compliance officer.

You may not limit the compliance officer�s opportunity to talk with your employees, and if the inspector wants to talk to them privately, you cannot stop him or her.

Sometimes, OSHA will talk with employees off-site and after hours, if there is a perceived threat of retaliation. This is legal.

You might also want to consider how your employees might treat a compliance officer.

One place had a supervisor who told the compliance officer that he didn�t know his head from a hole in the ground�then elaborated on why OSHA was unnecessary.

Unfortunately, the supervisor didn�t notice that the camcorder the OSHA inspector had was recording the entire conversation!

Rank and file employees may be disrespectful of OSHA compliance officers, and this can reflect badly on you.

Make sure that everyone treats the OSHA person with respect�you don�t have to be best buddies, but don�t let anyone get into name-calling.

�I Will Be Right Back�

If OSHA shows up at your door, you have to deal with them.

I know of one manager who tried to sneak out the side door for a long lunch in hopes of avoiding the OSHA inspection.

It didn�t work.

If OSHA shows up, you may be able to postpone the visit for a major reason� your own death or similar previous appointment�but this is a rare occurrence.

If you are unable to assist the compliance officer, make sure someone else can. Compliance officers will wait a reasonable amount of time, if you want to enlist the help of your boss or someone from another location.

If the wait will be too long, and this time may vary with different OSHA area offices, the inspector will start without you.

�I Know It�s Here Somewhere�

Most OSHA inspectors know that a visit from them is just about as unnerving as an audit from the Internal Revenue Service.

They will ask to see your safety policies and inspection and training documentation.

If you can�t find it, don�t panic. If you can get it to them before they leave, you are covered, in most cases.

Almost everyone has misplaced a file from time to time, and OSHA inspectors know that.

You will be in trouble if you can�t find any documentation, but if you have everything except one file, the inspectors tend to be pretty patient. Lynn Larsen is president of Safety Solutions Inc., a safety and equipment consulting firm in Christine, ND; 701-469-2315.

• OSHA