US Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Enforcement
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) mission is to promote and ensure 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 enforcing safe and healthful working conditions for men and women. Since the passage of the OSH Act of 1970, workplace deaths have fallen nearly 65 percent and occupational injury and illness rates have dropped 72 percent. OSHA continues to respond to new challenges from emerging industries, new technologies, and an ever-changing workforce by utilizing strategic mechanisms such as the Temporary Worker Initiative, National Emphasis Programs (NEPs), the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, and Corporate Settlement Agreements.
OSHA INSPECTION ACTIVITY
In FY 2016, OSHA conducted 31,948 total inspections. In addition, OSHA conducted 19,217 (about 60 percent) unprogrammed inspections, which includes employee complaints, injuries/fatalities, and referrals. The high percentage of unprogrammed inspections indicates that OSHA continues to devote more resources responding to injury-related activities as a result of the requirements for reporting severe injuries, which became effective January 1, 2015. OSHA also conducted 12,731(about 40 percent) programmed inspections. Programmed inspections focus OSHA's enforcement resources towards the industries and employers where known hazards exist (e.g., combustible dusts, chemical processing, hexavalent chromium, shipbreaking).
| OSHA Inspection Statistics | FY 2011 | FY 2012 | FY 2013 | FY 2014 | FY 2015 | FY 2016 |
| Total Inspections | 40,614 | 40,961 | 39,228 | 36,163i | 35,820 | 31,948 |
| Total Programmed Inspections | 23,329 | 23,078 | 22,170 | 19,222 | 16,527 | 12,731 |
| Total Unprogrammed Inspections | 17,285 | 17,883 | 17,058 | 16,941 | 19,293 | 19,217 |
| ~ Fatality/Catastrophe Inspections | 851 | 900 | 826 | 850 | 912 | 890 |
| ~ Complaints Inspection | 8,765 | 9,573 | 9,505 | 9,570 | 9,037 | 8,870 |
| ~ Referrals | 4,776 | 4,864 | 4,024 | 3,829 | 4,705 | 4,641 |
| ~ Referrals - Employer Reported | NA | NA | NA | NA | 1,864 | 2,050 |
| ~ Other Unprogrammed Inspections |
2,893 | 2,546 | 2,703 | 2,525 | 3,686 | 2,766 |
| 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 Inspection Statistics | FY 2011 | FY 2012 | FY 2013 | FY 2014 | FY 2015 | FY 2016 | ||||
| Total Violations | 85,514 | 78,723 | 78,186 | 67,680i, ii | 64,763 | 58,702 | ||||
| Total Serious Violations | 62,115 | 57,112 | 58,316 | 49,616 | 47,934 | 42,984 | ||||
| Total Willful Violations | 594 | 423 | 319 | 439 | 527 | 524 | ||||
| Total Repeat Violations | 3,229 | 3,034 | 3,139 | 2,966 | 3,088 | 3,146 | ||||
| Total Other-than-Serious | 19,306 | 18,054 | 16,290 | 14,503 | 13,016 | 11,895 | ||||
| Note: Hazard Alert Letters (HALS) were excluded from the total violation count publicized prior to FY 2014 and FY 2015, but were included in FY 2014 and FY 2015. This enforcement report adjusts FY 2014 and FY 2015 to reflect the total violation count excluding HALs. FY 2016 total violation count excludes HALs | ||||||||||
In FY 2016, OSHA began the Enforcement Weighting System (EWS). The EWS assigns a value to specific categories of inspections and investigations. The value is known as an Enforcement Unit (EU) and all inspections receive an EU value of at least one. The new system underscores the importance of the resource-intensive enforcement activity that is focused on some of the most hazardous work place hazards such as ergonomics, heat, chemical exposures, workplace violence and process safety management.
| Enforcement Weighting Values | OSHA Enforcement Weighting - FY 2016 Inspection Summary | |||
| Inspection Category Type | EU Value | Type of Inspection | Inspections | EUs |
| Federal Agency | 2 | Federal Agencies | 657 | 1,314 |
| Process Safety Management | 7 | Process Safety Management | 234 | 1,638 |
| Combustible Dust | 2 | Combustible Dust | 491 | 982 |
| 5a1 Ergonomic | 5 | 5a1 Ergonomic | 69 | 345 |
| 5a1 Heat | 4 | 5a1 Heat | 187 | 748 |
| 5a1 Non-PEL Exposures | 3 | 5a1 Non-PEL Exposures | 20 | 60 |
| 5a1 Workplace Violence | 3 | 5a1 Workplace Violence | 49 | 147 |
| Fatality/Catastrophe | 3 | Fatality/Catastrophe | 866 | 2,598 |
| Personal Sampling | 2 | Personal Sampling | 1,582 | 3,164 |
| SIG Case | 8 | Sig Case | 131 | 1,048 |
| Phone/Fax Complaints | 1/9 | Phone/Fax/Complaint | 21,738 | 2,410 |
| Rapid Response Investigations | 1/9 | Rapid Response Investigations | 7,088 | 784 |
| All Other Inspections | 1 | Non-Weighted Inspections | 27,662 | 27,662 |
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 https://www.osha.gov/dcsp/compliance_assistance/index.html, 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 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.