2015 Enforcement Summary | Occupational Safety and Health Administration

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US Department of Labor

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Occupational Safety and Health Administration Enforcement

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) mission is to promote and to assure workplace safety and health, and to reduce workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses. With over four decades of working to ensure safe and healthy workplaces, OSHA has continually served a vital role in assuring safe and healthful working conditions for men and women. Since the passage of the OSH Act of 1970, workplace deaths decreased nearly 66 percent and occupational injury and illness rates decreased 67 percent. OSHA continues to respond to new challenges from emerging industries, new technologies, and an ever-changing workforce by utilizing strategic mechanisms such as site specific targeting (SST), national emphasis programs (NEPs), the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, and corporate-wide settlement agreements.

OSHA INSPECTION ACTIVITY

In FY 2015, OSHA conducted 35,820 total inspections. This number includes 123 significant enforcement actions [including eight egregious (instance-by-instance) cases]. In addition, OSHA conducted 19,293 unprogrammed inspections, initiated through employee complaints, injuries/fatalities, and referrals. OSHA also conducted 16,527 programmed inspections. Programmed inspections devote resources toward proactively targeting the industries and employers that experienced the greatest number of workplace injuries and illnesses. During FY 2015, OSHA dedicated more resources responding to unprogrammed activities, due in large part to the new severe injury reporting requirements, which became effective January 1, 2015.

OSHA Inspection Statistics	FY 2010	FY 2011	FY 2012	FY 2013	FY 2014	FY 2015
Total Inspections	40,993	40,614	40,961	39,228	36,174i	35,820
Total Programmed Inspections	24,773	23,329	23,078	22,170	19,195	16,527
Total Unprogrammed Inspections	16,220	17,285	17,883	17,058	16,979	19,293
Fatality/Catastrophe Investigations	830	851	900	826	853	912
Complaints	8,027	8,765	9,573	9,505	9,568	9,037
Referrals	4,634	4,776	4,864	4,024	3,840	4,705
Other Unprogrammed Inspections	2,729	2,893	2,546	2,703	2,718	4,639ii

* Other unprogrammed inspections include: monitoring, follow-up, variance, unprogrammed related, unprogrammed other, and employer reported referral inspections.

Note: FY 2011 includes OSHA Information System (OIS) data and OSHA's Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) data that is of limited comparability to previous years that only include IMIS data.

OSHA Violation Statistics	FY 2010	FY 2011	FY 2012	FY 2013	FY 2014	FY 2015
Total Violations	96,742	85,514	78,723	78,186	67,941iii	65,044
Total Serious Violations	74,885	62,115	57,112	58,316	49,616	47,934
Total Willful Violations	1,519iv	594	423	319	439	527
Total Repeat Violations	2,758	3,229	3,034	3,139	2,966	3,088
Total Other-than-Serious	17,244	19,306	18,054	16,290	14,503	13,016

Note: Agency technical assistance requests, hazard alert letters, failure-to-abate, and unclassified violations are not included in the table.

For more information on OSHA inspections, see the OSHA Inspection Fact Sheet https://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/factsheet-inspections.pdf, or click this link for more information on OSHA’s compliance assistance services http://www.osha.gov/employers/, and OSHA’s free on-site assistance for small employers https://www.osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/consult.html. For information on employee rights, see the OSHA Workers Page https://www.osha.gov/workers.html.

i The October 2013 government shutdown occurred during this time period.

ii FY 2015 was the first year OSHA began tracking “employer reported referral” inspections. This category is the result of the new recordkeeping rule in which employers are responsible for reporting all work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye to OSHA within 24 hours. Employer reported referral inspections accounted for 1,864 unprogrammed inspections in FY 2015.

iii Much of the decrease in total violations in FY 2014 is attributed to the government shutdown that occurred from October 1-16, 2013. Without the government shutdown, OSHA estimates that there would have been approximately 71,000 total violations recorded in FY 2014.

iv It should be noted that the significant increase in willful violations in FY 2010 is due to a number of significant enforcement actions in the refinery industry, including an action against BP North America, which was subsequently settled.