OSHA watchdog lists top SIC codes, top guns’
Plastics, sawmills top list of potential targets
The latest information from a company providing research into federal safety inspections can give you a good idea of whether your client is likely to be inspected soon and whether the inspector is one of the "top guns" who are known to hand out the biggest penalties.
OSHA Data, a consulting firm in Maplewood, NJ, gathers information from the databases maintained by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Washington, DC, and then analyzes that data for patterns that can be of use to occupational health providers and employers. One of the company’s most popular offerings is the top 10 list of standard industrial classification (SIC) codes from past inspections. Each year, OSHA determines which companies will be inspected by looking at industry-specific lost work injury rates and other factors, explains Matthew M. Carmel, MS, CIH, CSP, president of OSHA Data.
Choosing the best targets
When an industry’s injury statistics exceed the national average, that industry’s four-digit SIC code is reported to area OSHA offices. Those local offices then locate all businesses in their jurisdiction with those SIC codes and targets them for unannounced inspections. The list of targeted industries is kept secret so that inspections are not anticipated.
OSHA conducts about 45,000 inspections every year, and about half are the "programmed" inspections that arise from a list of targeted industries. The rest are conducted in response to accidents and employee complaints, Carmel explains. He tells Occupational Health Management that the list of top 10 SIC codes has proven to be a reliable indicator of which employers are most likely to be inspected in the coming year.
This is the latest list of SIC codes likely to be targeted for an OSHA inspection:
Carmel also provides a list of what he calls the "top gun" inspectors at OSHA offices around the country, based on the compliance officers citing the greatest total number of alleged violations. The number of violations cited can depend on various factors including the inspector’s workload and the particular worksite under investigation, but Carmel says it also is a fact that some inspectors are simply more likely to hand out penalties than others would be in the same situation. Carmel himself worked briefly as an OSHA compliance officer trainee, accompanying compliance officers on inspections.
If the compliance officer inspecting your client is on the list, the employer is much more likely to be cited for safety violations, Carmel says. According to OSHA Data’s analysis, these are the inspectors responsible for the highest number of violations:
• Inspector no. R2412 Columbus, OH, area office;
• S7521 St. Louis;
• M9630 Cleveland;
• T6456 Parsippany, NJ;
• P0601 Portland, OR;
• C9042 Manhattan, NY;
• V9039 Springfield, MA;
• R7641 Concord, NH;
• C7319 Avenel, NJ;
• H4953 Albany, NY.
But Carmel also points out that more than 30% of all complaint inspections performed by OSHA inspectors do not uncover violations, and more than 50% find no willful, repeat, or serious violations. Those figures are more pronounced for unionized companies when compared with non-unionized workplaces. OSHA Data’s examination of enforcement data from Jan. 1, 1988, to Sept. 30, 1993, indicated that there were 141,678, or 19% of the total inspections, in response to employee complaints. Of those, 81,505 (58%) failed to uncover any willful, repeat or serious violations, and 43,523 (31%) failed to uncover any violations at all.
With unionized establishments, 21% of the inspections were due to complaints. Sixty percent of those inspections had no willful, repeat, or serious violations, and 35% had no violations at all. But with non-unionized workplaces, 19% of the inspections were prompted by complaints, 57% of those had no willful, repeat, or serious violations, and 29% had no violations.
"Although the percentage point differences between the two groupings were not wildly different, one should expect none at all," Carmel says. "In fact, it can be argued that unionized establishments should actually have either fewer complaint inspections, or when complaint inspections are performed, at least some violations should be uncovered."
Carmel’s explanation is that union employees or their representatives may be abusing their right to report their concerns to OSHA by filing unfounded complaints during contract negotiations. He notes that union grievance procedures should provide a first line of defense for resolving employee complaints about health and safety, so it should be an unusual circumstance in which the employee needs to complain directly to the government.
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