How to Conduct a Simulated OSHA Inspection - Safety & Industrial Hygiene

Why Should You Attend:

Compliance with OSHA employee safety & health requirements is a fundamental obligation for running a business. Compliance is a fairly straightforward process for most business types; however, depending on the category of risk in your work, your compliance profile can increase very steeply.

Following an inspection, OSHA can ‘propose’ penalties for non-compliance well into the six-digit range. And this is just for the average ‘inspection’ findings. If there is a complaint, a fatality, a hospitalization or amputation, or a Wilful class violation, the penalty amounts can quickly go off the chart. The good side of this calculus is that OSHA may also award you penalty-reducing credit for having a Safety & Health Program. This credential, along with other demonstrable and substantive Program elements (employee training, safety hardware, etc), can effectively lower your final penalty amount to a more reasonable level.

Most large organizations have long-since recognized that ‘OSHA compliance’ is a starting point for their employee safety & health programs, and have moved past this basic level. The more enlightened focus today is on ‘Zero Incident Achievement’, which we will also discuss briefly in this webinar. OSHA has a basic set of employee safety and health requirements applicable to practically all organizations. These will be reviewed in detail during the webinar.

Attendees will learn how to achieve and maintain OSHA compliance in the most efficient manner, applicable in administrative, operational, training and credentialing phases of any organization.

A simulated OSHA ‘inspection’ or audit will provide a starting point for Hazard Recognition and Identification. These are the two basic goalposts for an understanding of OSHA ‘s desired outcomes.

Achieving compliance with OSHA requirements in most organizations is not particularly difficult or costly, but it does need to be managed with a degree of precision. Language and vocabulary are very important; we will discuss the key terminology to help correctly align your technical safety effort.

We will also discuss the principal elements that an OSHA Compliance Officer will look for during an inspection. There is also an administrative side to the simulated inspection, such as your organizations written safety & health program. This document will be scrutinized for OSHA’s required ‘written programs’.

Each of these disciplines contains a template of micro-requirements- such as documented employee training, in some cases licensing/credentialing; currency of your documentation (i.e periodic refresher training) and annual Program reviews, etc.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• The main categories of OSHA Inspection – “ Why Me? Why Now?”
• The Inspection process; Do’s and Don’ts; how to make the process as painless as possible
• Sample ‘Facilities Inspection’ Checklist
• Categories of OSHA violations- Wilful, Serious, Repeat, etc.
• Severe Violator Enforcement Program
• Multi-Employer Worksite Policy
• Safety & Health (Industrial Hygiene) Inspections
• ‘Wall To Wall’ or Targeted Inspection; Complaints
• Records & OSHA Logs; required postings;
• When you must report an injury directly to OSHA; types of reportable injuries
• Focus on Construction (1926); Manufacturing (1910)
• Importance of having an Employee Safety Committee
• Facility & Premises – what to look for
• Machine & process elements
• Emergency Response Plan elements;
• ‘State Plan’ States: understanding the distinctions and protocols
• OSHA penalty structure; abatement requirements
• The Inspection ‘Closing Conference’
• Requesting an Informal Conference; correspondence with OSHA; contesting an inspection finding
• Safety documents typically requested during an Inspection
• Photography as evidence in the inspection

Updates on this topic

• Most recently revised OSHA Standards
• OSHA Penalty structure increased
• Consensus Standards (ANSI, NFPA, etc.)

OSHA National and Regional Emphasis Programs (Trench & Excavation; falls, etc.)

OSHA Compliance

1. Audits & Inspections
2. Regulatory Requirements- Includes Employee Safety Orientation & Training
3. Workplace Safety
4. Accident Investigations
5. Documentation & Recordkeeping

Who Will Benefit:

• Safety Managers; Safety Coordinators; Safety Technicians ; Loss Control Representatives; Risk Managers; OA & QC Managers; Insurance Inspectors; Safety Audit and Compliance; Legal Counsel; Human Resource Managers; Department Managers, Operations Managers; Superintendents; Lead Men; Supervisors; Foremen; Project Managers; Plant and Facility Managers; Public Utilities; Water/Waste Water; Construction Managers; Laboratory Safety Officers; etc.

Industries and Businesses:

• Small business of all types; contractors in all trades; construction; maintenance; facilities and property management; industrial, manufacturing, petro-chemical; commercial; food & hospitality; retail, warehouse, delivery, logistics, agricultural; transportation; office; custodial; waste handling and processing; municipal & civic organizations; county and state government; code enforcement officials; Emergency Response & Medical

John J. Meola
Safety Director, Pillar, Inc.

John J. Meola, CSP, ARM is the Safety Director for Pillar, Inc. based in Richmond, VA.

He is also an Instructor at the VA Commonwealth University, School of Business, Risk Management and Insurance Department and an OSHA 500 Community Outreach Construction Safety Trainer. He has authored two safety handbooks and contributes numerous technical safety articles for trade industry publications.

Mr. Meola is also an Executive Officer with the Colonial VA Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers and a Past-President of this Chapter. He works closely with clients from private industry to develop and manage employee safety and health issues across a wide range of businesses.

Topic Background:

Part of the US Department of Labor, OSHA is a law enforcement agency. The Agency has wide ranging authority to make, revise, and enforce employee safety regulations, primarily through the use of monetary penalties. These can easily reach into the mid to high 6 digit amounts.

In 4 of the past 5 years, US occupational fatalities have increased, now totalling over 5000 per year. This number is generally reflective of overall economic activity levels. It is unlikely to fall anytime soon.

Regrettably, opioid overdoses, workplace violence (homicide, suicide) and transportation fatalities are among the leading causes of occupational fatalities. Everything else falls under OSHA’s radar and purview.

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