The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued its annual inspection plan under the Site-Specific Targeting 2014* (SST) program to direct enforcement resources to workplaces where the highest rates of injuries and illnesses occur.
The SST program is one of OSHA's main programmed inspection plans for high-hazard, non-construction workplaces that have 20 or more workers. The SST plan is based on data collected from a survey of 80,000 establishments in high-hazard industries.
As part of the SST-14 program, OSHA is conducting a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the program based on 1,260 randomly selected establishments.
According to an article on Safety.BLR.com, OSHA's area offices will inspect facilities on the Primary Inspection List, which includes establishments that meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Manufacturing establishments with a Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) rate at or above 7.0;
- Manufacturing establishments with a Days Away from Work Injury and Illness (DAFWII) case rate at or above 5.0;
- Non-manufacturing establishments with a DART rate at or above 15.0; or
- Non-manufacturing establishments with a DAFWII case rate at or above 14.0.
If an area office completes all inspections on the Primary Inspection List, it can proceed to the Secondary Inspection List, which includes establishments meeting one or more of the following criteria:
- Manufacturing establishments with DART rates of 5.0 or higher;
- Manufacturing establishments with DAFWII case rates of 4.0 or higher;
- Non-manufacturing establishments with DART rates of 7.0 or higher; or
- Non-manufacturing establishments with DAFWII case rates of 5.0 or higher.
Finally, if all inspections on the Secondary Inspection List are completed, the area office can obtain a regional list of additional establishments to inspect. None of these establishments will have a DART rate of 3.6 or lower or a DAFWII case rate of 2.2 or lower.
Inspections conducted under the most recent SST plan will be comprehensive safety inspections. Health inspections will be limited to referrals from Compliance Safety and Health Officers (CSHOs) or inspections expanded by the Area Director based on an employer's prior inspection history.
In states such as California and Washington that administer their own occupational safety and health agencies, state officials can choose whether to follow federal OSHA's SST plan, use a high-hazard inspection targeting system based OSHA's Scheduling System for Programmed Inspections, or use a state-developed high-hazard inspection targeting system based on state data.
ISRI Safety offers an array of on-site safety services to help members improve their safety performance and comply with OSHA regulations. For information on these programs, please contact ISRI's Safety Program Manager
Anne Marie Horvath at (202) 662-8511.