GAO

United States General Accounting Office

Report to Congressional Requestors

August 2000 WORKER

PROTECTION

OSHA Inspections at

Establishments

Experiencing Labor

Unrest

GAO/HEHS-00-144

Page 1 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

Contents

Letter 3

Appendixes Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 16

Appendix II: Comments From the Department of Labor 22

Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 24

Tables Table 1: Number of Establishments Experiencing Labor Unrest,

by Source, Fiscal Years 1994-98 17

Table 2: Estimated Number of Establishments With Labor Unrest

Inspected by OSHA, Fiscal Years 1994-98 18

Table 3: Number of Establishments With and Without Labor Unrest,

Fiscal Years 1994-98 19

Table 4: Number of OSHA Inspections at Establishments With and

Without Labor Unrest, Fiscal Years 1994-98 19

Table 5: Percentage of Establishments Without Labor Unrest

Inspected by OSHA, Fiscal Years 1994-98 20

Figures Figure 1: Inspection Rates for Establishments With and Without

Labor Unrest, Fiscal Years 1994-98 8

Figure 2: Reasons for Inspections at Establishments With Labor

Unrest and for All OSHA Inspections, Fiscal Years 1994-98 10

Figure 3: Inspections of Unionized and Nonunionized Establishments,

With Labor Unrest and for All OSHA Inspections,

Fiscal Years 1994-98 12

Figure 4: Percentage of Inspections by Industry for All

OSHA Inspections and Inspections at Establishments

With Labor Unrest, Fiscal Years 1994-98 21

Abbreviations

BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics

FMCS Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

IMIS Integrated Management Information System

NLRB National Labor Relations Board

OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration
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Page 3 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

Health, Education, and

Human Services Division

B−284100 Letr

August 31, 2000

The Honorable Peter Hoekstra

Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Committee on Education and the Workforce

House of Representatives

The Honorable Cass Ballenger

Chairman, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections

Committee on Education and the Workforce

House of Representatives

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration

(OSHA) is responsible for ensuring healthful and safe working conditions

in nearly all of the approximately 7 million workplaces nationwide. To

carry out this responsibility, OSHA and its state partners conduct about

100,000 onsite inspections of employers each year, on a programmed or

routine basis and in response to fatalities or catastrophes1 or worker

complaints alleging violations of safety and health laws. Employees have

the right to notify OSHA of any potential safety and health violations, and

OSHA2 is required by law to investigate all valid3 complaints about serious

hazards from employees or their representatives. OSHA’s long-standing

policy also requires the investigation of all fatalities and catastrophes.

In recent years, however, employers and members of Congress have raised

concerns that employees may file complaints with OSHA during periods of

labor unrest solely to secure an inspection by OSHA as a way to pressure

employers to meet employee demands. Others maintain that the conditions

that lead to labor unrest may often be related to those that lead to potential

health and safety violations. According to Labor officials, labor unrest and

resulting breakdowns in labor-management relations can disrupt the

1

A catastrophe is defined as the hospitalization of three or more workers due to an accident

or illness caused by a workplace hazard.

2

Our discussion of OSHA throughout this report includes the activities of OSHA and its state

partners.

3

Under the law, there must be “reasonable grounds to believe” that the violation or danger

complained of exists. See 29 U.S.C. 657(f)(1).
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internal resolution of health and safety problems and can cause workers

and/or unions to turn to outside compliance authorities such as OSHA.

Given the different viewpoints about OSHA’s role and the timing of its

inspections, you asked that we determine (1) the extent to which

employers experiencing labor unrest are more likely to be inspected than

employers not experiencing labor unrest, and (2) whether OSHA has

policies for performing inspections during labor unrest and whether these

policies are followed.

To address your request, we identified those establishments that

experience labor unrest. There is no specific definition for labor unrest,

although it includes situations such as work stoppages (strikes),

allegations of unfair labor practices by employers or unions, campaigns to

organize employees into a union, or efforts to remove an existing union

from an establishment. We found only two databases that track specific

events that may be related to labor unrest—the Federal Mediation and

Conciliation Service (FMCS), which tracks work stoppages, and the

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which investigates and resolves

complaints about unfair labor practices and processes petitions requesting

employee elections to determine union representation. Using these

databases, we identified about 22,000 establishments each year from fiscal

years 1994 through 1998 that experienced conditions involving labor

unrest. We estimated the OSHA inspection rate for a random sample of

these establishments and compared it with an OSHA inspection rate we

developed for establishments not experiencing labor unrest.4 When

possible, we provided information on the characteristics of these

inspections5 (see app. I for a more detailed description of our scope and

methodology). We performed our work between June 1999 and June 2000

in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

4

The inspection rate we developed for establishments without labor unrest was based on the

universe of about 7 million establishments minus those establishments experiencing labor

unrest. Although OSHA would be able to perform an inspection at any of these

establishments if a valid complaint was filed or a fatality or catastrophe occurred, in

actuality, some establishments within this 7 million are more likely than others to be

inspected.

5

Because our sample only included establishments with labor unrest, we do not have

information on the characteristics of establishments without labor unrest. Our comparisons

of inspection characteristics, such as reason for inspection, are between OSHA inspections

for all establishments and inspections of establishments experiencing labor unrest, which

comprise about 2 percent of all OSHA inspections.
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Results in Brief Establishments experiencing labor unrest are about 6.5 times more likely

to be inspected by OSHA than establishments not experiencing labor

unrest (8.6 percent inspected compared with about 1.3 percent) during

fiscal years 1994 through 1998. The statutory requirement that OSHA

investigate valid complaints and OSHA’s policy to investigate a fatality or

catastrophe may be related to the higher rate of inspection for

establishments experiencing labor unrest. About 68 percent of the

approximately 1,900 OSHA inspections conducted each year at

establishments experiencing labor unrest resulted from complaints,

fatalities, or catastrophes. In contrast, only about 27 percent of the

approximately 100,000 total inspections OSHA conducted each year

resulted from complaints, fatalities, or catastrophes. We found that about

76 percent of the establishments with labor unrest that were inspected by

OSHA from fiscal year 1994 through fiscal year 1998 were unionized, as

compared with about 24 percent of all establishments inspected by OSHA

over this period. While it did not appear that unionized establishments

were in general more likely to receive a complaint-based inspection than

nonunionized establishments, our analysis did find that, among

establishments experiencing labor unrest, there were a higher proportion

of complaint-based inspections at unionized establishments than at

nonunionized establishments.

OSHA’s policy concerning inspections during labor unrest provides

discretion for programmed inspections. OSHA may delay programmed

inspections during periods of labor unrest, such as a strike, which would

prevent OSHA inspectors from witnessing actual work operations.

However, OSHA officials said that it has rarely delayed these inspections.

Statutory requirements or OSHA’s long-standing policy dictate that

inspections resulting from valid complaints, fatalities, or catastrophes

which accounted for the majority of OSHA’s inspections at establishments

with labor unrest during fiscal years 1994 through 1998must be

performed, regardless of whether labor unrest exists.
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Background OSHA was created in 1970 to carry out the Occupational Safety and Health

Act, which declared a national policy of ensuring safe and healthful

working conditions for every man and woman. To carry out its mission,

OSHA develops and enforces workplace safety and health standards,

educates employers and employees about workplace hazards, and along

with its state partners,6 conducts inspections of employers to assess

compliance with applicable safety and health standards. Of the

approximately 100,000 inspections conducted each year from fiscal year

1994 through fiscal year 1998, about 65,000 were conducted by the 25 states

and territories with approved OSHA programs. Four of these

statesCalifornia, Michigan, Oregon, and Washingtonconducted about

half of the state inspections.

OSHA and its state partners conduct inspections for a variety of reasons.

Programmed inspections are inspections that are planned at the beginning

of each year and are generally targeted at industries and particular

employers with high injury or illness rates. During fiscal years 1994 through

1998, more than half of OSHA’s inspections were programmed. Sixty

percent of the remaining inspections resulted from valid complaints (which

OSHA is required by law to investigate) and fatalities and catastrophes that

occurred in the workplace (which OSHA is required by policy to

investigate).

Although OSHA has the authority to inspect most types of

establishments—from large manufacturing plants to small retail stores—

some limitations govern when an inspection can be conducted. For

example, OSHA does not have the authority to conduct any type of

inspection at a farm that employs 10 or fewer employees and that does not

have a temporary labor camp. For an establishment employing 10 or fewer

employees in low hazard industries, OSHA does not have the authority to

conduct a programmed safety inspection but can conduct other types of

inspections.7 In addition, although OSHA generally can conduct inspections

in any industry, it tends to focus its inspection resources on those

industries that present the greatest workplace hazards to workers. For

example, in fiscal years 1994 through 1998, OSHA conducted about 44

6

States are allowed to operate their own safety and health programs as long as OSHA

determines that they are at least as rigorous as federal OSHA programs.

7

These limitations on OSHA’s authority have appeared regularly in OSHA’s yearly

appropriation.
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percent of its inspections in the construction industry, which has the

highest death rate of any industry. OSHA conducted about 26 percent of its

inspections in manufacturing, 11 percent in the service industry, 8 percent

in wholesale/retail trade, and the remaining 11 percent in other industries.

The term “labor unrest” is commonly used to indicate some type of

dissatisfaction among workers, but there is no consensus about the ways in

which labor unrest develops or the forms it takes. However, it is clear that

there is some relationship between labor unrest and employees’

dissatisfaction with wages and working conditions. For example, a strike,

which we are using as an example of labor unrest, may result, at least in

part, from unsafe working conditions. On the other hand, a strike also

might lead to unsafe working conditions if an employer calls in

replacement workers who are less trained and thus may be more

susceptible to injury. Allegations of unfair labor practices, another example

of labor unrest, can be filed by employees if the employer subjects them to

unsafe working conditions, or by an employer if workers conduct a work

slowdown, which also could be in response to working conditions. As a

result, conditions that lead to labor unrest and those that lead to safety and

health violations may be related.

OSHA Inspection Rate

Higher at

Establishments With

Labor Unrest

The OSHA inspection rate at establishments that experienced labor unrest

during fiscal years 1994 through 1998 was 6.5 times higher (8.6 percent)

than at establishments that did not experience such unrest (1.3 percent).

This may be related to OSHA’s statutory requirement to investigate valid

complaints and union employees’ awareness of their right to file

complaints with OSHA, in addition to its policy to investigate fatalities and

catastrophes.8

8

The information we present concerning inspection characteristics illustrates the

association between labor unrest and OSHA inspections; it does not demonstrate a causal

relationship between the two. There are numerous factors that may affect inspection rates

and labor unrest that are outside the scope of this review.
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OSHA Inspections at

Establishments With and

Without Labor Unrest

During fiscal years 1994 through 1998, OSHA inspected, on average, about

8.6 percent of the approximately 22,000 establishments each year that

experienced labor unrest (about 1,900 inspections a year). In contrast,

OSHA inspected, on average, about 1.3 percent of the approximately 7

million establishments9 each year that did not experience labor unrest

(about 93,000 inspections each year) (see fig. 1).

Figure 1: Inspection Rates for Establishments With and Without Labor Unrest, Fiscal Years 1994−98

9

As pointed out by OSHA officials, OSHA’s policy of targeting high-hazard industries means

that some establishments within this 7 million are more likely than others to be inspected.

We recognize that if we were to reduce that figure to include only those establishments

OSHA officials say are most likely to be inspected, this would increase the inspection rate

for establishments not experiencing labor unrest. However, OSHA has the authority inspect

any of these establishments based on a complaint.

0

5

10

15

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Fiscal Year

Percent Inspected

Establishments With

Labor Unrest

Establishments Without

Labor Unrest

5.3

1.6

9.8

1.4

7.8

1.2

10.0

1.3

10.3

1.3
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The percentage of establishments with labor unrest that were inspected

during fiscal years 1994 through 1998 ranged from about 5 percent to about

10 percent, while the percentage of establishments without labor unrest

that were inspected ranged from about 1.2 percent to about 1.6 percent.10

Statutory Requirement and

OSHA Policy May Be

Associated With Higher

Inspection Rate for

Establishments With Labor

Unrest

The statutory requirement that OSHA investigate valid complaints and its

long-standing policy to investigate fatalities and catastrophes may help to

explain the higher rate of inspection for establishments with labor unrest.

About 68 percent of the inspections at establishments with labor unrest

were required because a complaint was filed (60 percent) or a fatality or

catastrophe occurred (8 percent). In contrast, only 27 percent of all

inspections OSHA conducted during this period were the result of a

complaint (22 percent) or a fatality or catastrophe (5 percent) (see fig. 2).

Thus, OSHA inspections at establishments experiencing labor unrest were

2.5 times more likely to result from a complaint, fatality, or catastrophe

than OSHA inspections in general.

10Because the yearly estimates of the percentage of establishments with labor unrest that

were inspected are based on samples, there is a sampling error of roughly plus or minus 3

percentage points surrounding each of those estimates at the 95 percent confidence level.

The difference between the rate of inspection among establishments experiencing labor

unrest and the rate of inspections among those without unrest is statistically significant at

the .05 level for each fiscal year.
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Figure 2: Reasons for Inspections at Establishments With Labor Unrest and for All OSHA Inspections, Fiscal Years 1994−98

Because of OSHA’s requirements to investigate valid complaints and

fatalities and catastrophes, an OSHA inspection occurring at an

establishment with labor unrest may be wholly separate from any ongoing

labor unrest or may in fact be related to the labor unrest. For example, of

the four establishments we visited in California that had labor unrest and

were inspected by OSHA during periods of labor unrest, two of the

inspections were unrelated to the labor unrest that was ongoing at both

sites. One inspection resulted because an employee broke his ankle11; the

other inspection resulted when a parent filed a complaint citing the

possible presence of asbestos during the renovation of an educational

facility. For the other two inspections, however, there were indications that

the filing of the complaint with OSHA may have been a result of, or at least

related to, the labor unrest ongoing at the time. In one case, union officials

acknowledged that the OSHA complaint the union filed was related to labor

unrest, and in the second case, the employer believed that a complaint filed

Complaint

60%

Other

13%

Fatalities/

Catastrophes 

8%

Programmed

19%

Complaint

22%

Other

18%

Fatalities/

Catastrophes

5%

Programmed

55%

Inspections at Establishments With Labor Unrest All OSHA Inspections

11California OSHA’s policy is to respond to serious work-related accidents in the same

manner as federal OSHA responds to fatalities and catastrophes. In the case of nonserious

work-related accidents, its inspection policy is discretionary.
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by a union employee was in response to efforts to remove the union from

the workplace.

Despite the greater representation of complaint-driven inspections for

establishments with labor unrest, inspections at establishments with labor

unrest were just as likely to result in at least one violation or a violation

classified as “serious” as were all inspections conducted by OSHA. For

example, for both types of inspections during fiscal years 1994 through

1998, about 62 percent of all inspections resulted in at least one violation

and about 90 percent of those had 10 or fewer violations. Similarly, when

there were violations cited for establishments with labor unrest, about 51

percent of the violations were classified as “serious,” as opposed to about

53 percent for all OSHA inspections.

Higher Representation of

Unionized Establishments

in Inspections of

Establishments With Labor

Unrest

Approximately 76 percent of the OSHA inspections at establishments

experiencing labor unrest during fiscal years 1994 through 1998 were

conducted at unionized establishments. In comparison, about 24 percent of

all OSHA inspections during this time were conducted at unionized

establishments (see fig. 3).12

12Information is not available on the percentage of establishments nationwide that are

unionized. For comparison, however, about 10 percent of all private workers were

represented by a union in 1998, ranging from 27 percent in the transportation and public

utilities industry to about 2 percent in the agriculture industry.
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Figure 3: Inspections of Unionized and Nonunionized Establishments, With Labor Unrest and for All OSHA Inspections, Fiscal

Years 1994−98

According to OSHA officials, the higher rate of inspections for unionized

establishments experiencing labor unrest may in large part result from

OSHA’s targeting procedures. They said that OSHA concentrates its

inspections in high-risk and relatively more unionized industry sectors,

which include construction, manufacturing, and oil/gas extraction.

According to OSHA officials, the greater dangers in these sectors and the

greater presence of unionization may also be related to a higher degree of

labor unrest.

Regarding complaint-driven inspections at establishments with labor

unrest, we found that 63 percent of those inspections at unionized

establishments resulted from complaints compared with about 52 percent

for nonunionized establishments. However, in general, OSHA inspections

resulting from complaints did not vary significantly between unionized and

nonunionized establishments, as the percentage of complaint-driven

inspections at unionized establishments was only slightly higher than for

nonunionized establishments (26 versus 21 percent, respectively). This

indicates that during periods of labor unrest, complaint-based inspections

are somewhat more likely at unionized establishments than at

nonunionized establishments.

Unionized

76%

Nonunionized

24%

Nonunionized

76%

Unionized

24%

Inspections at Establishments 

With Labor Unrest All OSHA Inspections
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Union, NLRB, and OSHA officials, as well as employer representatives, said

that unionized employees are in general more aware of their worker

protection rights and may be more likely to file complaints with regulatory

agencies, especially during periods of labor unrest. An OSHA official said

that unions are also more aware of the role of regulatory agencies, both in

terms of protecting workers’ rights and as a bargaining tool during contract

negotiations. Furthermore, according to a researcher well known for work

in this area, establishments with labor unrest are probably predominately

unionized because these employees are more likely to speak out and file

complaints with agencies such as OSHA in times of unrest.13

OSHA Policy Allows

Inspections at

Establishments

Experiencing Labor

Unrest

Federal and state OSHA policies allow programmed inspections to be

delayed if a condition such as a strike is significant enough to prohibit

OSHA inspectors from witnessing normal work operations. However,

according to federal and most state OSHA officials, this has rarely

occurred. Two states highlighted conditions that would affect the decision

to conduct a programmed inspection. Kentucky OSHA officials stated that

programmed inspections would not be conducted if a picket line existed.

The official said that several reasons existed for this policy, including

concern for the safety of state inspectors and a desire not to get involved in

employer/employee controversies. Vermont OSHA officials said that the

state would postpone a programmed inspection if the company was on

strike before the start of the inspection, and if a strike began while the

OSHA inspectors were on site, OSHA inspectors would leave the premises

and continue the inspection after the strike was finished.

However, both federal and state OSHA inspection policies follow the

statutory requirement that OSHA investigate valid complaints, and state

policies follow federal policy regarding the investigation of fatalities and

catastrophes. Under these policies, federal and state OSHA officials stated

that inspections resulting from complaints, fatalities, and catastrophes are

to be conducted even during periods of labor unrest. They also said that, as

discussed above, these types of inspections accounted for the majority of

those OSHA performed at establishments with labor unrest from fiscal

years 1994 through 1998.

13David Weil, “Building Safety: The Role of Construction Unions in the Enforcement of

OSHA,” Journal of Labor Research, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1992), and “Enforcing OSHA: The Role of

Labor Union,” Industrial Relations, Vol. 30, No. 1 (1991).
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Agency Comments In commenting on a draft of this report, Labor said that it recognized the

limitations in the data available to address the objectives of the review. It

believed that, because of these limitations, we could not conclude that

labor unrest led to an increased likelihood of OSHA inspections. While the

report estimates the percentage of establishments with labor unrest that

were inspected by OSHA, we do not draw any conclusions about a specific

relationship between the existence of labor unrest and OSHA inspections.

In fact, the report discusses a variety other factors that affect an

establishment’s likelihood of inspection by OSHA. Labor’s comments are

reproduced in app. II. Other technical comments provided by Labor were

incorporated as appropriate.

We are sending copies of this report to the Honorable Alexis M. Herman,

Secretary of Labor; the Honorable Leonard R. Page, General Counsel of the

National Labor Relations Board; the Honorable C. Richard Barnes, Director

of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; relevant congressional

committees; and others who are interested. Copies will be made available

to others on request.

If you or your staffs have any questions concerning this report, please call

me at (202) 512-7215. Other GAO contacts and staff acknowledgments are

listed in app. III.

Marnie S. Shaul

Associate Director

Education, Workforce, and

Income Security Issues
Page 15 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections
Page 16 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology ApApenednxidexiIs

We were asked to determine (1) the extent to which employers

experiencing labor unrest are more likely to be inspected than employers

not experiencing labor unrest, and (2) whether the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration (OSHA) has policies for performing inspections

during labor unrest and whether these policies are being followed. To

determine whether employers experiencing labor unrest are more likely to

be inspected than employers not experiencing labor unrest, we (1)

identified the universe of establishments that experienced labor unrest and

determined how many of these were inspected by OSHA and (2)

determined how many of the establishments that did not experience labor

unrest were inspected by OSHA. To identify policies for conducting

inspections during labor unrest, we obtained OSHA policies and

interviewed federal OSHA officials. We also obtained inspection policies

from each of the 25 states and territories that conduct their own safety and

health programs.

We also interviewed officials from the National Labor Relations Board

(NLRB); the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS); the

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); representatives of the National

Association of Manufacturers, the Labor Policy Association, the AFL-CIO,

and a California longshoremen union; and David Weil, an associate

professor of economics from Boston University known for his research on

occupational safety and health. In addition, we visited four California

employers that had experienced various forms of labor unrest and had

been inspected by OSHA during a period of labor unrest to obtain

information about the inspections.

OSHA Inspections at

Establishments

Experiencing Labor

Unrest

Labor unrest is a vague term with many connotations and no precise

definition. To perform our analysis, we first identified the various

documented forms of unrest. Accordingly, we obtained information from

the only two sources that systematically collect and maintain information

on events that may be related to labor unrest—NLRB and FMCS. Using

these sources, we were able to identify establishments that experienced (1)

charges of unfair labor practices, (2) union campaigns to organize

employees, (3) efforts to decertify (remove) a union, or (4) work stoppages

(strikes). For purposes of this report, we define labor unrest as the

occurrence of one or more of these four conditions.

From NLRB we obtained a listing of all cases on file during fiscal years 1994

through 1998 that involved charges of unfair labor practices (either against

an employer or against a union), union efforts to organize employees, and
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 17 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

efforts to have a union decertified as a bargaining representative of

employees. This accounted for approximately 40,000 cases each year. From

FMCS we obtained a listing of all establishments that had a work stoppage

during fiscal years 1994 through 1998. This resulted in about 400 cases each

year. These establishments may have had multiple cases on file with NLRB

during a fiscal year and may also have had a work stoppage according to

FMCS. As a result, we had to review manually each case in the two

agencies’ databases to obtain an unduplicated count of establishments for

each fiscal year (see table 1).

Table 1: Number of Establishments Experiencing Labor Unrest, by Source, Fiscal

Years 1994−98

Once we had an unduplicated list of establishments that experienced labor

unrest, we selected a random sample of 400 establishments from each of

the 5 fiscal years. Our sampling procedure permitted us to generalize the

sample results to the entire universe of establishments experiencing labor

unrest.

After we selected our sample establishments, we compared them with

OSHA’s Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), which tracks

OSHA inspection activity, to determine whether an inspection was

conducted at a particular establishment. Because labor unrest can exist

over a period of time, we decided to include any OSHA inspections

conducted at the sample establishments 6 months before the earliest date

on record with NLRB or FMCS and 6 months after the latest date. For

example, if NLRB recorded charges of unfair labor practices filed against

an employer on November 9, 1997, and again on September 15, 1998, then

we counted all OSHA inspections at this establishment between May 9,

1997, and March 15, 1999, as a match. Inspections before May 9, 1997, and

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Combined

Cases listed

NLRB 41,415 40,444 39,366 40,627 37,647 199,499

FMCS 477 388 375 386 430 2,056

Total 41,892 40,832 39,741 41,013 38,077 201,555

Unduplicated count

NLRB 21,811 21,927 20,724 21,978 20,499 106,939

FMCS 275 211 208 224 222 1,140

Total 22,086 22,138 20,932 22,202 20,721 108,079
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 18 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

after March 15, 1998, would be considered outside the period of labor

unrest. Using this methodology, we determined that OSHA inspected 172 of

the 2,000 sample establishments. We then projected these results to the

universe of establishments experiencing labor unrest. As shown in table 2,

we estimated that, of the approximately 108,000 establishments with labor

unrest during this period, about 9,300 were inspected by OSHA (see table

2).

Table 2: Estimated Number of Establishments With Labor Unrest Inspected by

OSHA, Fiscal Years 1994−98

a

Because the yearly estimates of the percentage of establishments with labor unrest that were

inspected are based on samples, there is a sampling error of roughly plus or minus 3 percentage

points for each of those estimates at the 95 percent confidence level. Thus, for example, there is a 95

percent chance that in fiscal year 1998 the number of establishments with labor unrest that were

inspected was between 1,513 (7.3 percent) and 2,756 (13.3 percent). The difference between the rate

of inspection among establishments experiencing labor unrest shown in table 2 and the rate of

inspections among those without unrest shown in table 5 is statistically significant at the .05 level for

each fiscal year.

OSHA Inspections at

Establishments

Without Labor Unrest

According to BLS, approximately 7 million establishments existed

nationwide each year from 1994 through 1998. We had already determined,

using the NLRB and FMCS database, that there were approximately 22,000

establishments each year that experienced labor unrest. We then

subtracted this number from the total establishments identified by BLS

(see table 3) to calculate the total number of establishments without labor

unrest.

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Combined

Sample size 400 400 400 400 400 2,000

Number inspected 21 39 31 40 41 172

Percentage inspecteda 5.3 9.8 7.8 10.0 10.3 8.6

Number of

establishments with

labor unrest 22,086 22,138 20,932 22,202 20,721 108,079

Estimated number

inspecteda 1,171 2,170 1,633 2,220 2,134 9,328
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 19 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

Table 3: Number of Establishments With and Without Labor Unrest, Fiscal Years

1994−98

We then determined the percentage of establishments without labor unrest

that were inspected by OSHA. We first converted the number of inspections

conducted on a yearly basis (about 100,000) to establishments inspected, as

OSHA may conduct numerous inspections at a single establishment. To do

so, we identified the number of different addresses at which OSHA

conducted inspections during fiscal years 1994 through 1998, the method

OSHA officials suggested to approximate unique establishments inspected.

We had already identified the number of inspections OSHA conducted at

establishments with labor unrest, so we subtracted this number from the

estimated number of establishments at which OSHA conducted inspections

(see table 4).

Table 4: Number of OSHA Inspections at Establishments With and Without Labor

Unrest, Fiscal Years 1994−98

a

See note under table 2.

We then divided the number of OSHA inspections at establishments

without labor unrest for each fiscal year by the number of establishments

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Combined

Total

establishments

nationwide 6,620,651 6,761,169 7,008,812 7,057,794 7,354,744 34,803,170

Number of

establishments

with labor unrest 22,086 22,138 20,932 22,202 20,721 108,079

Number of

establishments

without labor

unrest 6,598,565 6,739,031 6,987,880 7,035,592 7,334,023 34,695,091

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Combined

With unique

addresses 106,076 93,369 84,165 94,462 94,106 472,178

With labor unresta 1,171 2,170 1,633 2,220 2,134 9,328

Without labor

unrest 104,905 91,199 82,532 92,242 91,972 462,850
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 20 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

nationwide that did not have any labor unrest to determine the proportion

of those establishments that were inspected by OSHA (see table 5).

Table 5: Percentage of Establishments Without Labor Unrest Inspected by OSHA, Fiscal Years 1994−98

a

See note under table 2.

Comparison of

Inspection

Characteristics

Because we used a sampling procedure to estimate the OSHA inspection

rate at establishments experiencing labor unrest, we cannot identify

whether a particular establishment in OSHA’s database that was not in our

sample experienced labor unrest. Thus, we could not obtain inspection

characteristics for those OSHA inspections conducted at establishments

without labor unrest. As a result, we can compare inspection

characteristics for those establishments that appeared in our sample only

against all OSHA inspections. Inspections at establishments experiencing

labor unrest comprise only about 2 percent of all OSHA inspections. The

characteristics we compared include:

• reason for inspection,

• union status of the establishment inspected,

• size of the establishment inspected, and

• industry designation of the inspected establishment.

Information on the first two variables is contained in the report. We found

that IMIS data on establishment size were of questionable reliability, so we

did not present information on this variable. For the last variable, industry

designation, we found that differences existed between the percentage of

various industries inspected by OSHA in general and during times of labor

unrest. We found that although OSHA was in general more likely to inspect

construction establishments, for establishments with labor unrest, OSHA

was more likely to inspect manufacturing establishments (see fig. 4).

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Combined

Number of establishments

without labor unrest 6,598,565 6,739,031 6,987,880 7,035,592 7,334,023 34,695,091

OSHA inspections at

establishments without labor

unrest 104,905 91,199 82,532 92,242 91,972 462,850

Percentage of

establishments without labor

unrest inspected by OSHAa 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.3 1.3 1.3
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 21 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

Figure 4: Percentage of Inspections by Industry for All OSHA Inspections and Inspections at Establishments With Labor Unrest,

Fiscal Years 1994−98

A number of different factors could have contributed to this. For example,

NLRB’s database, the primary database we used to identify establishments

experiencing labor unrest, might contain primarily manufacturing

establishments. However, NLRB officials would not confirm whether

manufacturing establishments would be more apt to be in its database than

any other industry. Because we were unable to obtain an explanation for

the differences in inspection rates, we present this data for informational

purposes only.

Manufacturing

Construction

Other

Transportation, Communication,

and Public Utilities

Wholesale/Retail Trade

Services

44%

26%

11%

8%

5%

7% 8%

61%

14%

5%

11%

1%

Inspections at Establishments 

With Labor Unrest All OSHA Inspections
Page 22 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

Appendix II

Comments From the Department of Labor ApendxiI
Appendix II

Comments From the Department of Labor

Page 23 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections
Page 24 GAO/HEHS-00-144 OSHA Inspections

Appendix III

GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments ApendxiI

GAO Contacts Lori Rectanus, (202) 512-9847

Wayne Sylvia, (617) 565-7492

Staff

Acknowledgments

In addition to those named above, the following persons made important

contributions to the report: Linda W. Choy, Joseph G. Evans, Lyle H. Lanier,

Jr., Kevin F. Murphy, and James P. Wright.

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