2020Directory_FNL_FlippingBook

2020 MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY & SERVICES GUIDE HOT TOPICS

You Have a Right to Appeal Citations/Petitions • If you appeal, ask for outside help. Call any experts you have worked with regarding OSHA topics to help you resolve the citation. • Schedule a conference with the OSHA representatives to discuss the citation and ways to resolve the issues. • Many facilities are able to negotiate fine abatement, often with the aid of professionals. Generally, negotiations include readiness to solve the issue to remove the workplace hazard. How to Prepare • Be prepared for an OSHA inspection! Have your records and documentation in order, keep your facility clean and safe from workplace hazards, ensure all equipment is functioning properly. • Train employees what to do and who to contact when the inspector arrives. • Have a designated facility contact in place so everyone knows who to get at the time the inspector arrives. • Have a designated area for the inspector to wait in, such as a conference room. • Record all items that the inspector asks for, including records, reports, documents, photos, etc. • Ask that any request from the inspector be submitted in writing, so there is a formal request for this information. • Understand when you need to say no, but remember that if the inspector has the right to request something, they will get it. If your on-site contact isn’t available, if you cannot contact your out of office consultant, or if there is any other extenuating circumstance, you can say no to a request and ask the inspector to return at a later date or wait for that information when requested through proper methods. • Don’t be a tour guide. Do not show the inspector all around the facility, describing all activities on-site. Show them to what they need to see and then take them back to the conference room. • Duplicate all photos and measurements they take to make sure you know the data they are recording. • Answer only what is asked. You do not have to inform the inspector of all available information at the facility. Answer the questions asked, be clear and concise. • Always know why they are there, both to know what they are looking for and what is motivating them as well as how you can avoid this in the future.

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The Association thanks Walden Environmental Engineering for contributing this information.