The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) maintains a full-time staff of inspection officers, called compliance safety and health officers (CSHO). OSHA has jurisdiction over most worksites and can enforce the rules and regulations pertaining to the specific industry of the worksite. These rules and regulations can be found in your industry’s specific standards. For general industry, these standards are 29 CFR 1910 (General Industry Standards). For construction, these standards are 29 CFR 1926 (Construction Industry Standards).
An OSHA inspection can be conducted either on-site or by phone/fax. During an on-site inspection, the CSHO may walk through portions of the worksite, will review worksite injury and illness records, and will observe the posting of the official OSHA poster. The inspector is also very likely to interview employees privately, without management present, to discuss site safety.
These inspections can occur for several reasons. Inspections are prioritized for worksites in the following order of priority: Continue reading “Are Third Party Safety Inspections The Best Course of Action for My Facility?”