How To Avoid OSHA Citations

osha-citation

Your company cannot avoid inspections from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), but it can do things to avoid getting citations as a result of thos inspections.  Jennifer Stroschein of J.J. Keller & Associates recently described five things companies can do to avoid receiving OSHA citations.

  1. Ensure regulatory compliance
    • OSHA inspectors are looking for non-compliance issues.  With regulations changing and updating, being compliant now does not mean you will be compliant in the future.  You must work to stay current on all regulations that apply to your workplace.
  2. Conduct regular hazard assessments/safety audits/self-inspections
    • Regular hazard assessments help you find hazards and correct them before OSHA does an inspection.  When conducting hazard assessments, you should focus on the “Big Four”: falls, electrocutions, caught-in or between, and struck-by.  If your company has an good overall safety and health program, inspectors will focus on the Big Four.
  3. Implement a safety and health program
    • Having a safety and health program greatly reduces injuries and illnesses within the workplace.  Safety and health programs can reduce injuries and illness costs by 20 to 40 percent and also decrease the likelihood of an OSHA inspection.
  4. Training
    • Properly training employees for the tasks they are expected to perform is required by OSHA.  The regulatory agency currently verifies that, not only has required training been conducted, but that it has been provided in a way that workers can understand in terms of language and vocabulary.  Training employees in this way not only ensures that OSHA considers your company compliant, it also means your employees know how to properly handle all equipment and situations as they arise.
  5. Keep your records
    • One of the first things done on an OSHA inspection is a review of records.  Because of this, keeping accurate records, especially injury and illness records, will help your company avoid a citation.

To read about the above points in more detail, you can read the original article here.

Source: 5 ways your company can avoid costly OSHA citations

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