Safety Compliance Tests and Audits

Since the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed in the United States in 1970, it has been the responsibility of OSHA (The Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to administrate the OSH Act and protect the working public in America from malady at work.

In partnership with national organizations, OSHA’s main responsibilities are to write policies regarding safety in the workplace, to educate employers and employees on these safety standards, and to ensure that companies understand and comply with these requirements. Nearly every industrialized country in the world has a similar governing body whose responsibility it is to protect its country’s workers and ensure safety compliance by employers, such as the Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Canada.

But, are OSHA’s standards being met in the workplace? After all, a policy is only as good as the employer who is enforcing (or not enforcing) it. As such, OSHA has implemented a number of means to ensure adherence by American employers. Some of these include:

• Employing Compliance Assistance Specialists. These are experts who liaison between employers and OSHA and provide compliance assistance directly to the employer. Not unlike a customer service representative, employers can contact a CAS in a local OSHA office for help related to compliance. CAS’s are available to answer questions about various policies, help employers locate educational resources, and can even conduct on-site workshops and seminars related to a specific industry. A CAS can help employers navigate the vast amounts of material and information it publishes to find the materials that directly relate to the employer’s field of business.

• Conducting workplace audits. OSHA officers conduct periodic audits in various workplaces to help determine whether an employer is complying with its regulations. Officers can help employers spot areas where improvements are needed, and can alert employers to potential problems and make recommendations based on their findings.

• Making audit information available to the public. If you are concerned about a particular workplace, you can check OSHA’s database to see if that company has been audited and what reports are available for viewing.

• “Lookback Reviews.” OSHA regularly reviews its own policies to determine whether they are still relevant in the current workplace and to ensure that policy is keeping up with technology.

Data published by OSHA states that the non-fatal workplace injury/incident rate per 100 employees in 2005 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) either remained the same, or dropped slightly from the previous year in most business sectors. This suggests that most employers are heeding the message of safety compliance and making continued efforts to assess risk in the workplace and to follow the policies that are in place. This is due largely to OSHA’s commitment to provide easy access to its resources and educational materials. Whether you work in construction, laboratory testing, food service, environmental protection, or you are an electrical engineer, there are educational resources available to help you communicate safety compliance to your employees/co-workers.

OSHA even provides checklists for employers/employees to use to make sure that equipment is functioning properly and being used in a safe, secure manner. While the onus is still on the employer to make sure that policy is actually implemented on-site, OSHA’s many efforts to promote safety compliance has helped raise awareness among employers and employees alike that it pays to make the workplace safe.

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