A Look at How OSHA Enforces Workplace Safety Standards

Written by Staff Writer | Edited by Michael Purser

OSHA has a few tools at its disposal to enforce federal standards. Find out more about them.

You know how important it is to abide by Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) standards. Failing to adhere to regulatory requirements can lead to serious problems, including citations and more. Severe infractions may even lead to escalating daily fines.

How does OSHA enforce its standards? Knowing which tools the administration has at its disposal can go a long way towards avoiding unnecessary trouble. As a supervisor, manager or employer, you want to protect your team from severe injuries and workplace hazards. But you also want to make sure your company doesn’t get hit with citations and penalties.

In this article, we will cover some of the most important information you need to know about OSHA’s enforcement process. We will also cover ways you can train to prepare yourself and others to ensure worker safety and OSHA compliance.

How OSHA Enforces Workplace Safety Standards

You likely already know some of what regulators expect from your organization, especially if you operate a high-hazard workplace. Of course, understanding how regulators enforce the standards under which you operate and what happens when you fall short is also important.

Worksite Inspections

This is the primary way regulators verify adherence to regulatory requirements. It’s a direct and powerful tool because it typically happens without notice. While planned inspections are normal, unplanned inspections are frequently employed to motivate business owners to always be on their best behavior. Inspectors tend to arrive unannounced, making it impossible to conduct a last-minute cleanup or misrepresent normal conditions.

What leads regulators to come to your place of business without telling you beforehand? Several things might trigger a surprise inspection, including worker complaints, referrals from other agencies and reports of severe injuries or fatalities. Regulators also randomly inspect high-hazard institutions due to the increased risk of worker injury.

It can be frustrating to be surprised by an inspection. But try to keep in mind that inspectors are there for your protection as much as for your employees'.

OSHA inspectors are called compliance safety and health officers. Each one is a trained safety professional. During a visit, these industrial hygienists must identify themselves and state the nature of their visit before examining work premises, equipment and practices for compliance with federal safety regulations.

The inspection consists of three parts:

Opening Conference: The officer will explain the reason for selecting your business and describe the scope of the inspection.
Walkaround: The officer will walk through the portion of the workplace covered by the inspection, looking for hazards that could lead to employee injury or illness. They will also review worksite injury and illness records. They may point out some violations that can be corrected immediately.
Closing Conference: They will discuss findings with the employer and work to help you find possible courses of action to address any issues.

Depending on the inspector’s findings, the employer may receive recommendations. abatement orders, citations, legal instructions and procedures for reinspection or appeal.

The Violations OSHA Finds Most Often

Some hazards show up frequently across worksites, appearing on the administration’s annual list of most frequent citations. Some of these include:

Fall hazards: Unguarded edges, missing guardrails and lack of fall arrest systems put workers at serious risk and draw heavy enforcement attention.
Hazard communication issues: Failing to maintain safety data sheets, properly label hazardous chemicals or train workers on the risks they face.
Respiratory protection failures: Many employers fail to maintain a written program for respiratory hazards, conduct fit testing or provide proper training when respirators are required.

These are just a few of the common issues inspectors find during their work.

Types of OSHA Violations and Penalties

Not all violations are treated the same. Regulators classify improper behavior into several categories based on the level of risk and the employer's knowledge of the hazard.

Other-than-serious: These involve conditions that could cause injury or illness, but are not likely to result in death or serious physical harm. They carry fines up to $16,550 per violation.
Serious: When there is a significant chance that a hazard could cause death or serious physical harm, and the employer knew or should have known about the problem, penalties up to $16,550 per violation may be assessed.
Willful: When an employer knowingly ignores OSHA requirements or shows plain indifference to worker safety, penalties increase significantly. Each instance may cost up to $165,514.
Repeated: An employer who frequently or habitually violates the same standard incurs an ongoing penalty of up to $16,550 per day until the condition is resolved.
Failure-to-abate: When an employer does not correct a cited violation by the given deadline, the initial penalty accrues additional fines of up to $16,550 per day past the deadline.

The Citation and Contest Process

After the inspection is complete, regulators have up to six months to issue a citation. If they send you a citation, you will receive it through certified mail. The included documentation must be posted at or near the location of the alleged violation in plain view.

Each citation includes a description of the violation, the applicable standard violated, a proposed penalty and an abatement deadline. You have up to 15 working days to contest the citation. Instructions for doing so are included with the original notice. If you don’t contest the citation within that window, both the citation and the penalty become final.

If you don’t think the citation is justified, you can file a Notice of Contest with your OSHA Area Office. The case then goes to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent agency that handles these disputes.

Remember, even if you contest the violation, you still need to correct the hazard by the stated deadline unless you also contest the abatement date.

Closures and Work Stops

In most cases, citations and penalties are enough to encourage employers to make crucial changes to protect their businesses. In cases of extreme danger, an inspector may require an imminent danger notice, allowing employees to refuse work tasks they believe threatens their safety. This may effectively stop work on site entirely.

OSHA inspectors lack the authority to close a business or shutter a jobsite. Only a court can do that. Where imminent dangers exist, safety officers may take the extreme step of seeking such a court order. But doing so is highly irregular.

Benefits of Robust Safety and Compliance Training

Every manager wants to avoid citations. One of the most effective ways you can achieve this goal is to implement comprehensive safety and compliance training for you and your team. When workers and supervisors understand the rules, violations are far less likely to occur.

Investing in safety training is just smart business. It reduces the financial burden of workplace injuries, including medical costs, lost productivity, increased insurance premiums and potential OSHA fines.

If your team follows proper safety protocols, even if an incident occurs, you’ll have documented training records to demonstrate that you took reasonable steps to protect workers. That documentation can help when facing a citation.

It’s never been easier to get high-quality safety training for you and your team. Even a simple 30-Hour or 10-Hour OSHA Outreach Training course can save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in citations, medical costs and lost productivity.