OSHA Compliance FAQ

What does OSHA mean?

OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which was established in 1971 with the passage of the Occupations Safety and Health Act. Since both terms have the same initials, the latter is often referred to as the OSH Act.

What is the main objective of OSHA?

OSHA was designed to provide a safe and healthy working environment for employees. It does this by creating and administering specific safety standards and effective methods of recognizing hazards.

Aside from this, OSHA provides training and outreach if needed. They also conduct random or scheduled inspections and levy fines and citations for safety infractions.

What happens during an OSHA audit?

If your practice is covered by OSHA, they can perform an inspection at any time. You can also request an audit from the agency. Either way, it can cover your entire workspace or just certain parts.

During an audit, OSHA’s compliance officers (who can be trained in safety or health hazards) will start by doing an opening conference. Here, they will establish the purpose of the inspection as well as its scope.

The next step is a walkthrough of all work areas involved. Someone from your company must go with the inspector to take notes and answer questions.

Last is the closing conference, where They will issue a citation if they find violations of any specific OSHA standard or regulation. You can also ask for copies of photos, videos, and sample reports or receipts of documents copied by the inspector.

How to get OSHA audit protection?

There are many steps that you can take to ensure that you’re ready for an OSHA audit at any point in time.

First, find out the OSHA standards and standard interpretations that are cited for your industry. Next, keep a record of all the injuries and illnesses in your workplace and submit them to OSHA if needed.

It would also help if you knew what to do before, during, and after an OSHA inspection, so familiarize yourself with the process. Also, identify someone to represent the company during audits.

Remind your employees to observe all safety rules and make sure that everyone in the company knows where the health and safety records are.

Finally, reach out to an OSHA compliance specialist for onsite consultations, training, and other services.

What are the three parts of an OSHA inspection?

In general, there is no way to know when an OSHA audit will take place. Nevertheless, there are steps that you can take to prepare for it and minimize your chances of getting a citation.

Ideally, you should make workplace safety a part of your culture as a business. This way, you remain compliant at all times and should have no problem being audited at random.

You could also familiarize yourself with the OSHA inspection process.

It starts with the opening conference, where the OSHA inspector meets briefly with a representative of the employees, the onsite manager, and possibly other members of the organization. In this stage, the inspector will explain the purpose of the audit.

From there, the inspector proceeds to walk around the facility and ask questions, take photos, and examine the working conditions. They will also ask to see written compliance forms and regulations along with the Safety Data Sheets. You should have an SDS for each of the hazardous chemicals in the workplace to protect all its users.

After this, the inspector meets again with the other party to discuss violations and hazards, if any are identified. They will also make recommendations on how the company can fix the problems and set a target date for completion.

Why is it important for employees to go through OSHA training?

One of the biggest reasons why workers should go through OSHA training is to protect themselves while at work.

Based on a report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the healthcare sector and social assistance industry had the highest number of illnesses or injuries between 2019 and 2021. These cases included COVID-19 infections.

Given the current situation, your staff needs to learn how to identify existing or potential risks. It would allow them to determine what actions to take to prevent these injuries or job-related illnesses.

That is where OSHA training comes into play.

Ongoing training can help develop the safety skills of your staff and build a strong culture of safety in your organization.

Granted, you have to invest time and other resources for this and ask for the assistance of safety specialists, but in return, your business will become more productive, and you can avoid having to pay OSHA fines.

What are the training requirements of OSHA?

OSHA is not too specific when it comes to how training is administered, but your employees do need to have functional knowledge of how to do their jobs safely from day to day. If the work environment has a hazard, all those who work around it must be trained about the risks and safety measures involved.

Do dental offices need OSHA training?

Yes, dental offices are also required to conduct OSHA training every year. Also, all employees must go through it, even those working part-time.

What should an employer do after getting an OSHA citation?

Issuing an OSHA citation for any infraction is the responsibility of the compliance safety and health officer or CSHO. Once an employer receives an OSHA notice, they must post it close to the areas where the violations happened.

This citation must remain posted for three working days or until the problem has been addressed if it takes more than three days.

How can an employee file an OSHA complaint?

OSHA values honest feedback from employees when it comes to safety issues and has systems in place to protect them from retaliation.

There are two ways for an employee to file a complaint. One is anonymous, which can be done online, via fax, or through a phone call. In this method, the complainant does not have to provide a name or contact information.

In the second method, the complainants provide their identities but should not do the same for witnesses, if there are any.

Are there exemptions from OSHA guidelines?

OSHA applies to most private sector employees and employers in all US jurisdictions, either directly through Federal OSHA or an OSHA-approved state program.

However, 24 states and the District of Columbia do not have an OSHA-approved state plan. OSHA does not apply to public sector employees in these places.

Independent contractors and freelancers are similarly exempt from OSHA requirements. The same is true for someone working on a farm who is also a member of the farm employer’s family.

Finally, hazards that are regulated by other federal agencies are also excluded from OSHA compliance. Some of the most common examples are in the nuclear power and mining sector.

There are some instances where employers are still covered by OSHA but are exempt from certain standards only.