Occupational Safety & Health

OSHA Policy Changes Needed to Confirm That Employers Abate Serious Hazards Gao ID: HRD-91-35 May 8, 1991

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) policies and procedures for confirming whether employers abated hazards it identified during inspections.

GAO found that: (1) OSHA policies and procedures lacked a regulatory requirement that employers provide evidence of abatement; (2) at least one-fourth of the follow-up inspections OSHA conducted in fiscal year (FY) 1989 found that employers failed to correct known hazards; (3) OSHA lacked adequate procedures to resolve abatement confirmation problems posed by the often short duration of construction activities; (4) OSHA directed more than half its inspections to construction activities, since the construction industry had the highest serious injury rate and the third-highest fatality rate; and (5) although 55 percent of OSHA FY 1989 inspections were of construction sites, only 20 percent of all follow-up inspections were of construction sites.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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