Gear Up for an OSHA Visit

By Cayden Wemple. 

OSHA inspections can be ordered seemingly out of the blue. Here’s what you should do to prepare for them.  

There’s no way around it... it’s practically inevitable that at some point in a contractor’s career, they will have an OSHA inspection. Being in compliance with OSHA rules is extremely important and a necessity for avoiding costly fines and even worse, complete shutdowns. Kyle Rea of Adams and Reese recently sat down with Heidi J. Ellsworth on a Read, Listen, Watch Webinar to discuss how your business should prepare for an OSHA visit.  

Before an inspection is even called, it’s great to be on good terms with the OSHA compliance officer at your jobsites. A trusted/friendly employee should be the designated liaison for such encounters. “Be sure whoever's in charge of a given job site kind of understands how to handle a compliance officer showing up,” Kyle said. “That doesn't necessarily mean that they have to know the ins and outs of OSHA inspections, but it means that they understand, ‘All right, what does my employer expect me to do in this situation?’”  

You should also know that you do not necessarily have to let the OSHA officer into specific hazardous areas if they do not have the correct safety equipment with them. This is a great opportunity for you to flex your OSHA knowledge on them.  

“If you're going to go into a hazardous area, make sure that the compliance officer is wearing the appropriate PPE to enter the job site,” Kyle told Heidi. “A lot of times this stuff has to be fitted to an individual person. If the compliance officer doesn't have the requisite equipment to enter your job site, don't let them. You shouldn't be providing them with something that might give them the ability to go into one of your job sites but may not necessarily comply with the standard.” 

Kyle continued, “This person's there to enforce the standard, make them adhere to the standard. And again, I think they appreciate that in that context. When you present them with the situation where they say, ‘Look, it's not safe for me to let you do this. Why would I let you do this?’" 

Read, Listen or Watch the full conversation here to learn more about OSHA visits.