Techno Bits/Technical Bulletins

OSHA has published its audit policy which assures employers that company safety and health audits cannot be used against them during inspections or other enforcement actions if safety and health hazards that are found are corrected promptly. During OSHA inspections, safety inspectors will not routinely request that employers provide reports of self-audits that they may have conducted. However, if an OSHA inspector independently observes a safety or health hazard, he/she may request or subpoena audit reports to determine what the employer knew about the hazard and how it was corrected.

Normally OSHA can issue citations for conditions that existed as much as six months before an inspection. However if the conditions were identified in a company self-audit and then corrected, no citation will be issued. Companies that conduct safety and health audits or engage consultants to conduct them cannot be assured that OSHA will not inspect, cite or penalize them. But if safety and health hazards uncovered during audits are corrected, it will be less likely that OSHA will find conditions that violate the regulations; any citations that are issued are less likely to be classified as willful and penalties are likely to be lower.

Posted - Jan. 11, 2002