How to Pass an OSHA Inspection

Hello and welcome. Okay, so are you worried about the possibility of OSHA showing up at your front door for a surprise inspection and not really sure how to prepare for that possibility? If so, don’t worry, because I’m going to share with you everything you need to know about the OSHA enforcement process, and more importantly, how to get prepared so that you can pass any inspection and stay out of trouble.

But before getting into that, if you haven’t already, please go ahead and subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell so that you’re notified every time I upload new content two to three times per month, that’ll cover all the environmental health and safety issues that impact small manufacturing and industrial companies. All right. Just to let you know, I’ve helped many small manufacturing companies navigate the entire OSHA enforcement process from that initial inspection to helping them fix the violations and even helping them to fight back, to get fines thrown out and citations thrown out.

I’ve created this new series of videos to share with you everything that I’ve learned throughout those experiences and full disclosure before starting the safety consulting company, one of my past companies was actually inspected and cited by OSHA, so I know exactly what that feels like.

All right, so let’s get started. So, as I mentioned previously, this is a series of videos that are going to cover all the areas of OSHA enforcement that you need to be aware of, and again, to help you get prepared for the possibility of an inspection and have the confidence that you’ll actually pass it and stay out of trouble.

All right, so here are the nine areas, the nine topics that we’re going to cover in this series. That will come later. All right, so the first video in the series is going to cover OSHA citations and fines. So there are actually six different types of citations, um, out there ranging from what are called di minimus that are really just administrative citations that don’t have any fines associated with them, all the way up to much more severe, uh, either willful or repeat violations that carry maximum fines all the way up to $145,000 each.

And then we’re going to have a video that talks about how much an OSHA inspection could end up costing you. So in our experience, the average OSHA inspection of a small manufacturing or industrial company is going to range anywhere between 35,000 and $90,000 per inspection, but in a lot of cases, they can actually ex exceed a hundred thousand, 200,000 or even more. And that begin is going to go into much more detail about why that’s the case and how those citations can, and fines can add up so quickly.

And then we’re going to talk about OSHA criminal liability. And this is a really important one because a lot of business owners don’t understand that they can face potential criminal liability, including jail time and fines up to a half million dollars if an employee is killed due to ne negligence over safety. And so you’ll definitely wanna come back and check that one out.

And then we’re going to talk about what can actually trigger OSHA inspection. And there’s all kinds of different triggers, uh, that can, can result in an inspection. Um, that includes, you know, having a serious injury. You know, God forbid a fatality, um, high, having high injury rates or an employee complaint. And a employee complaints are actually the number one trigger for an OSHA inspection. So it’s important to understand that.

And then we’re going to have a video that talks about how to prepare for an OSHA inspection. So you need to have that procedure and that playbook ready, you know, before they show up in the lobby. Otherwise, it’s going to be, you know, it’s going to be a mess. You want to be prepared for that. And that video’s going to talk about how to do that. But also keep in mind that, you know, there’s no shortcut. You know, the best preparation for any OSHA inspection is to have a fully functioning OSHA compliance program that addresses all the standards and the laws that apply to your company. You know, without having that fully functioning safety program, it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be really tough to prepare for and pass that OSHA inspection. So I just want to give you a little preview there. Uh, there’s no way around it, there’s no shortcuts.

Then we’re going to have a video that talks about how to actually manage an OSHA inspection. So you get the call from the lobby that the inspector is there, you know, you want to, you want to refer back to that playbook that I talked about before in preparation. And you want to have everything ready. You want to have all your documents ready, You want to have your, your safety team ready, uh, to answer questions. You know, you don’t want to tell them any more than you have to. They’re going to ask a lot of things you just want to answer as succinctly as possible without going on and on, and, and maybe exposing you to more liability and so forth. So there’s a lot of, there’s a lot that goes into properly managing an OSHA inspection. And we’ll go into great detail about that.

And then, believe it or not, we’re going to have a video that talks about what happens after an OSHA inspection. So when the OSHA inspection ends, there’s going to be a closing conference that inspector’s going to tell you what they think is going to be cited. Once that happens, you know, you have to begin to take action. You have to start fixing things and be aware that they have up to six months to actually issue any citations. So you want to be on the lookout for that letter, because once that letter arrives, the clock starts ticking. You’re going to have two weeks to fix everything otherwise they’re going to face even more penalties.

So there’s a lot to do even after the OSHA inspection. It’s not over, you know, once the inspection ends. That doesn’t mean the enforcement process is over, unfortunately, that that is far from the truth.

And before telling you about the other videos, real quickly, if you’ve ever been through an OSHA inspection, uh, have you have been cited or maybe avoided citations, feel free to leave comments below, share your experiences. I’d love to hear from you, Uh, I think other viewers would too. And I promise to respond to any comments that you leave or even post any questions that you want, uh, to have answered about this, about this topic. And I’ll be happy to answer that too. Again, I’d love to hear from you, so please feel free, uh, to post below.

And then we’re going to have a really interesting video that’s going to going to talk about whether or not you should hire a lawyer to deal with citations. And this one is going to be interesting. We, we’ve seen some clients hire lawyers. I have my opinions about how effective they can be, under what circumstances it’s a good idea, under what circumstances, I think it’s not necessarily a good idea or not needed. So that’s going to be a really interesting video that you want to come back and, and check out.

And then we’re going to wrap up a series with a video that talks about the most common violations and citations that result from an inspection of a small manufacturing or industrial company. So I’m going to talk about the most common citations around lockout tagout, hazard communication, respiratory protection, uh, hearing conservation, emergency action Planning Board to give you a preview of some of those common violations.

All right, So we’ve covered a lot of information here. So let me begin to wrap up by saying a couple more things. Uh, first of all, if you’re not sure that you’re prepared for an OSHA inspection, or maybe you know that you’re not prepared for an OSHA inspection, as I alluded to earlier, you know, the best defense is to have a fully functioning OSHA compliance program, you know, specifically designed for your manufacturing or industrial facility. If that’s the case I have the perfect free resource for you. So go below the video here, and I’m going to have a link to our free e-book, which is called How to Build a Manufacturing Safety Program from Scratch. And it’s, it’s designed obviously for manufacturing companies, but also industrial companies that have similar uh, requirements. It’s written in very simple language that non-experts can easily understand and follow it. It’s a great guide, it’s a great resource. It’s free. Click on that link and you’ll get instant access and invite you to grab that. I think it’ll be a lot of help for you, and it’ll, again, it’ll really help you prepare for that possibility. There’s no shortcuts to having a fully functioning safety program.

All right. With that said, make sure to check out the next video in the series, which is going to talk again about all the most common citation types and the fines that go along with it. Again, if you like what you learned today, please make sure, if you haven’t already, to go ahead and subscribe to our channel, hit that notification bell, and you’ll be notified every time that I upload new comp content, which again, will be two to three times per month. It’s going to cover all the environmental health and safety issues that impact small manufacturing and industrial companies. Thanks again for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.

By Russell Carr|2022-10-12T12:26:48-05:00October 11th, 2022|Good To Know, OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off

About the Author: Russell Carr

How A Sales Guy Transformed Into An Environmental, Health & Safety Expert & Advocate For Small Businesses I've spent my entire 30+ year career working within the manufacturing and “industrial services” sectors. The first 15 years of my career focused on sales of hazardous materials related products and services to the manufacturing sector, then for the last 16+ years transitioned into entrepreneurship, founding 3 small industrial services related contracting businesses. As you’ll see below, running these companies eventually lead me to found yet a 4th business, but more on that in a minute…. Here’s a brief description of the first 3 companies: Berg Environmental Services, Inc.: hazardous waste disposal & transportation services, founded in August of 2003 3rd party wind energy operations & maintenance services provider to utility scale wind farms throughout the US, founded in September 2007 3rd party oil & gas exploration & production services provider, founded in August of 2011 Each of these companies operated in extremely dangerous working conditions and exposed my employees to a wide range of serious health & safety hazards on a daily basis. To complicate matters, 2 of the companies also exposed the environment to significant potential harm. In other words, I learned very early the critical importance of managing environmental, health and safety issues so as to ensure the safety of our employees and the environment, as well as minimizing related risks. But I also learned how incredibly difficult and challenging this endeavor can be due to the wide range of complicated and continually changing environmental, health and safety rules and regulations that impacted the companies. To summarize the challenges: First I had to determine which regulations applied to each company, then I had to build compliance programs to meet those regulations, and finally I had to ensure that the programs were being managed and followed by our staff on a daily basis. All while trying to run and grow 3 profitable businesses…. It was overwhelming and I always struggled to keep up. To make matters worse, throughout this time I also witnessed the devastating price that companies, management and ownership can pay for failing to manage EHS compliance. This included seeing one of my hazardous waste management clients get sent to jail over environmental issues, another client’s management team threatened with jail time, a direct competitor get fined $378,000 by OSHA fine after an employee was nearly killed, and many others face major fines and penalties. Full disclosure, one of my companies got fined by OSHA at one point, & another was cited by TCEQ, so I know how it feels. In summary, I learned first hand how incredibly difficult it is for small companies to manage EHS compliance due to a common lack of the critical expertise, time and resources that are needed to keep up, and how this situation then ends up exposing them to these potentially catastrophic risks that can literally destroy lives and businesses. This later inspired me to found my 4th company, Berg Compliance Solutions in 2012, which is dedicated to helping other small businesses, and business owners, to manage EHS compliance and risk. Education BA, Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder, December, 1990. Summary of Professional Experience & Qualifications: 30+ years serving the manufacturing & industrial services sectors 30+ years of sales and marketing experience 16+ years as small business owner & entrepreneur: Founded and operated 4 small businesses since 2003. Environmental, Health & Safety Compliance & Program Related: 19 plus years of hazardous waste management including EPA, TCEQ & RCRA regulations 8 years of DOT/FMCSA compliance experience, including hazardous materials transportation 8 years of combined experience implementing and managing OSHA health and safety compliance programs for 2 high risk energy services businesses Successfully implemented and gained ISO 9001 Quality Management Certification and OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & Safety Advisory Service) Certification for wind energy maintenance business. Regulatory Enforcement Related Experience: Served as expert witness in criminal environmental compliance enforcement cases Superfund-CERCLA OSHA enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in following industries: industrial services, manufacturing & construction. TCEQ enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in manufacturing.

How to Pass an OSHA Inspection