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Enforcement
OSHA is responsible for enforcing its standards on regulated entities. Compliance Safety and Health Officers carry out inspections and assess fines for regulatory violations. Inspections are planned for worksites in particularly hazardous industries. Inspections can also be triggered by a workplace fatality, multiple hospitalizations, worker complaints, or referrals.

OSHA is a small agency, given the size of its mission: with its state partners, OSHA has approximately 2,400 inspectors covering more than 8 million workplaces where 130 million workers are employed. In Fiscal Year 2012 (ending Sept. 30), OSHA and its state partners conducted more than 83,000 inspections of workplaces across the United States — just a fraction of the nation’s worksites. According to a report by AFL–CIO, it would take OSHA 129 years to inspect all workplaces under its jurisdiction.

Enforcement plays an important part in OSHA’s efforts to reduce workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Inspections are initiated without advance notice, conducted using on-site or telephone and facsimile investigations, performed by trained compliance officers and scheduled based on the following priorities [highest to lowest]: imminent danger; catastrophes – fatalities or hospitalizations; worker complaints and referrals; targeted inspections – particular hazards, high injury rates; and follow-up inspections.

Current workers or their representatives may file a complaint and ask OSHA to inspect their workplace if they believe that there is a serious hazard or that their employer is not following OSHA standards. Workers and their representatives have the right to ask for an inspection without OSHA telling their employer who filed the complaint. It is a violation of the OSH Act for an employer to fire, demote, transfer or in any way discriminate against a worker for filing a complaint or using other OSHA rights.

When an inspector finds violations of OSHA standards or serious hazards, OSHA may issue citations and fines. A citation includes methods an employer may use to fix a problem and the date by which the corrective actions must be completed. OSHA’s fines are very low compared with other government agencies. The maximum OSHA fine for a serious violation is $7,000, and the maximum fine for a repeat or willful violation is $70,000. In determining the amount of the proposed penalty, OSHA must take into account the gravity of the alleged violation and the employer’s size of the business, good faith and history of previous violations. Employers have the right to contest any part of the citation, including whether a violation actually exists. Workers only have the right to challenge the deadline by which a problem must be resolved. Appeals of citations are heard by the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).

OSHA carries out its enforcement activities through its 10 regional offices and 90 area offices. OSHA’s regional offices are located in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City metropolitan area, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Reporting requirements
As of January 1, 2015, all employers must report: Employers can report to OSHA by:
 * 1) All work-related fatalities within 8 hours.
 * 2) All work-related inpatient hospitalizations, all amputations and all losses of an eye within 24 hours.
 * 1) Calling OSHA's free and confidential number at 1-800-321-OSHA (6742).
 * 2) Calling your closest Area Office during normal business hours.
 * 3) Using the new online form that will soon be available.

Recordkeeping requirements
Tracking and investigating workplace injuries and illnesses play an important role in preventing future injuries and illnesses. Under OSHA’s Recordkeeping regulation, certain covered employers in high hazard industries are required to prepare and maintain records of serious occupational injuries and illnesses. This information is important for employers, workers and OSHA in evaluating the safety of a workplace, understanding industry hazards, and implementing worker protections to reduce and eliminate hazards.

Employers with more than ten employees and whose establishments are not classified as a partially exempt industry must record serious work-related injuries and illnesses using OSHA Forms 300, 300A and 301. Recordkeeping forms, requirements and exemption information are at OSHA’s website.

Whistleblower protection
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and 21 other statutes protecting workers who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, maritime and securities laws. Over the years, OSHA has been responsibility for enforcing these laws that protect the rights of workers to speak up without fear of retaliation, regardless of the relationship of these laws to occupational safety and health matters.

Compliance assistance
OSHA has developed several training, compliance assistance, and health and safety recognition programs throughout its history.

The OSHA Training Institute, which trains government and private sector health and safety personnel, began in 1972. In 1978, the agency began a grant making program, now called the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, to train workers and employers in identifying and reducing workplace hazards.

The Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) recognize employers and workers in private industry and federal agencies who have implemented effective safety and health management programs and maintain injury and illness rates below the national average for their respective industries. In VPP, management, labor, and OSHA work cooperatively and proactively to prevent fatalities, injuries, and illnesses through a system focused on: hazard prevention and control, worksite analysis, training, and management commitment and worker involvement.

OSHA’s On-site Consultation Program offers free and confidential advice to small and medium sized businesses in all states across the country, with priority given to high-hazard worksites. Each year, responding to requests from small employers looking to create or improve their safety and health management programs, OSHA’s On-site Consultation Program conducts over 29,000 visits to small business worksites covering over 1.5 million workers across the nation. On-site consultation services are separate from enforcement and do not result in penalties or citations. Consultants from state agencies or universities work with employers to identify workplace hazards, provide advice on compliance with OSHA standards, and assist in establishing safety and health management programs.

Under the consultation program, certain exemplary employers may request participation in OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). Eligibility for participation includes, but is not limited to, receiving a full-service, comprehensive consultation visit, correcting all identified hazards and developing an effective safety and health management program. Worksites that receive SHARP recognition are exempt from programmed inspections during the period that the SHARP certification is valid.

OSHA also provides compliance assistance through its national and area offices. Through hundreds of publications in a variety of languages, website safety and health topics pages, and through compliance assistance staff OSHA provides information to employers and workers on specific hazards and OSHA rights and responsibilities. For more details visit the OSHA Compliance Assistance webpage.