COVID-19: Increased Worksite Complaints and Reduced OSHA Inspections Leave U.S. Workers' Safety at Increased Risk

On Thursday, February 25, 2021, the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General/Office of Audit issued a report titled COVID-19: Increased Worksite Complaints and Reduced OSHA Inspections Leave U.S. Workers’ Safety at Increased Risk. The audit underlying the report covered only the time period spanning February 1, 2020, through October 26, 2020.

The audit sought to address: 1) what plans and guidance OSHA developed to address challenges created by COVID-19; and 2) the extent to which challenges created by COVID-19 affected OSHA’s ability to protect the safety of workers and its own workforce.

The report includes 4 recommendations; OSHA agreed with each.

1. Improve OSHA’s inspection strategy by prioritizing very high and high-risk employers for COVID-19 related onsite inspections, particularly as businesses reopen and increase operations in various localities across the United States;
2. Ensure remote inspections are tracked retroactive to February 1, 2020, and going forward.
3. Compare remote inspections to onsite inspections and document analysis of the frequency and timeliness of inspectors in identifying and ensuring abatement of worksite hazards.
4. Analyze and determine whether establishing an infectious disease-specific ETS is necessary to help control the spread of COVID-19 as employees return to worksites.

In response to recommendation 4, OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Amanda Edens notes that “the agency is already considering whether any emergency temporary standards on COVID-19, including with respect to masks in the workplace, are necessary.”

Other notable content:

• Over the time period covered by the report, OSHA received 15 percent more complaints than it received over the same period in the previous year and conducted 50 percent fewer inspections. 
• Over the time period covered by the report, the number of OSHA COVID inspections and citations were significantly lower than the number of COVID inspections and citations issued under State Plans.
• Most of the inspections OSHA conducted during this time period were remote, which, the OIG concluded, left employees more vulnerable to hazardous risk exposure while working.
• The OIG report emphasizes that while OSHA continues to issue COVID guidance, this guidance is not enforceable in the way that a rule or standard would be.
• After outlining OSHA’s arguments to-date as to why an ETS is unnecessary, the OIG report notes that “having an ETS could be of importance during the pandemic as enforceable criteria because under the OSH Act’s General Duty Clause, violations are rarely issued.”
• The report provides an overview of the four State Plan ETS’s.  

What is not in the report:

Overall, the report focuses on how an ETS would make it easier for OSHA to issue citations and prove violations, not on whether such a standard would better protect workers. It offers no evidence that workers are better protected by emergency standards issued under State Plans, but seems to conflate higher citation levels with stronger worker protections.

Read the full report here as well as OSHA’s response here. A summary of the report can also be found here.