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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION

One Lafayette Centre

1120 20th Street, N.W. - 9th Floor

Washington, DC 20036-3457

Date: January 19, 2022

Subject: Equity Action Plan

Agency: U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission

Agency Equity Team: Multi-level team that is comprised of senior management, human 

resources, equal employment opportunity, budget, procurement and information technology staff 

members.

(1) Executive summary

A. Agency Name and Mission

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC or Review 

Commission) is an independent adjudicatory agency created by the Occupational Safety and 

Health Act of 1970 (the OSH Act). The agency’s sole statutory mandate is to serve as an 

administrative court providing fair and expeditious resolution of disputes involving the 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), employers charged with violations 

of federal safety and health standards, and employees and/or their representatives. The 

Review Commission was created by Congress as an agency independent of the Department 

of Labor to ensure that OSHA’s enforcement actions are carried out in accordance with the 

law and that parties are accorded due process.

B. Summary of Action Plan

The Review Commission has identified opportunities to bolster affirmative equity-enhancing 

policies in key areas in which the agency interacts with external stakeholders, other 

government agencies, and staff. Sections two (Summary of Early Accomplishments) and 

three (Equity Action Plan) of this report outline six key areas in which the agency has either 

taken steps to implement equity-affirming policies and programs or has developed an 

actionable framework to further enhance the focus on equity. 

(2) Summary of Early Accomplishments

A. Internal Policy/Directives/ Rules (Focus Area #2 of the Agency’s 90-Day 

Progress Report on Equity Assessment)
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The equity team conducted a line-level review of all policy documents with open 

discussion on the potential impacts of each policy on equitable outcomes. Agency 

leadership has reviewed and updated several policies to ensure that they comply with 

applicable federal nondiscrimination laws and are free of both implicit and explicit 

biases. The following actions were taken to ensure that our policies and practices foster 

diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility:

1. Developed and issued to all agency personnel an Equity and Access Policy 

Statement to demonstrate our leadership’s commitment to ensuring that current 

agency programs and policies and all future agency endeavors are implemented 

equitably.

2. Updated the agency’s strategic plan for fiscal years 2022 to 2026, to include goals 

and measures for promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and 

organizational excellence, including a culture of professionalism, mutual respect, 

and organizational pride, and ensuring that staff members are adequately trained 

and developed in these areas.

3. Solicited feedback from our staff and external stakeholders (e.g., strategic 

planning committee, alert and notice on the agency’s website) regarding our draft 

2022 to 2026 Strategic Plan.

4. Revised several agency directives (e.g., telework; hours of work; recruitment, 

relocation, and retention incentives; occupant emergency plan; professional 

liability insurance; phased retirement; smoking, vaping, and using smokeless 

tobacco; attorney-advisor hiring) to remove gendered language and, where 

applicable, recognize all types of family structure.

5. Distributed an anonymous survey to gather feedback from employees and on-site 

contractors about work environment issues.

6. Held staff meetings between senior leadership and supervisors, as well as one-onone meetings, to ensure that all employee views and opinions are heard on various 

work-related topics.

7. Revised the agency’s equal employment opportunity statement to demonstrate the 

agency’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in all 

respects, including hiring.

8. Began collecting demographic data from job applicants to measure how our 

recruiting efforts are available and accessible to the broadest pool of applicants.

9. Implemented enhancements to employees’ work-life balance without sacrificing 

performance and accountability (e.g., expanded our telework program, revised the 

agency’s core hours to allow more flexibility with employee work schedules).
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B. Electronic Case Management System (Focus Area #3 from the Agency’s 90-

Day Progress Report on Equity Assessment)

The Review Commission recognizes that its ability to gauge the impact of expanding 

availability of instructional material in a language other than English will be difficult. 

Therefore, the Review Commission looks to address equitable access and usage of its 

electronic case management system by ensuring that instructional guides for using the 

application are available in the most requested alternative language (Spanish). By making 

the instructional material available, our gauge will be a measure of the number of 

requests for the same information above what is currently being sought. 

The Review Commission will use translation mechanisms to provide existing printed 

instructional information in Spanish. Considering that Spanish is the second most 

requested language of users, the Review Commission believes that we can impact wider 

user comprehension of the application.

Data required to identify individuals as members of underserved communities is not 

collected or tracked by the Review Commission. Quantifying the effect of enhancements 

to this system will be measured as a net total change in public requests for foreign 

language instructional assistance. The agency would expect to have instructional material 

translated and available on our website within 18 months of the acceptance of the 

endeavor.

The Review Commission will track the project by making translated instructional 

documents available via our website. Transitional milestones:

o Identify documents to be translated;

o Engage translation vendor;

o Obtain translated material; and

o Post translated material to Review Commission’s public website 

(https://www.oshrc.gov)

C. Language Access (Focus Area #4 of the Agency’s 90-Day Progress Report on 

Equity Assessment)

The Review Commission’s Language Access Plan ensures that English as a Second 

Language (ESL) individuals who interact with the Commission are provided with 

language translation and/or interpretation services. These services ensure fair and 

equitable treatment for all persons regardless of their native/primary language. The 

Review Commission offers publication and document translation, telephonic interpreter 

service, and in-person interpreter service for our adjudicatory proceedings. The agency 

has been successful at providing these services in an equitable manner by providing 

interpretations in an individual’s native language. Although Spanish has been the most 

requested language for translation and interpretation, our Language Access Plan affords 

all ESL individuals access to services that they may not have other means to obtain. As 

the Review Commission focuses on gathering data to support expanding our language 
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services, our current Plan continues to satisfy the mandate of Executive Order 13985 to 

advance equity for all stakeholders.

D. Adjudication Process (Focus Area #5 of the Agency’s 90-Day Progress 

Report on Equity Assessment)

As a result of iterative review processes with a renewed focus on equitable outcomes, the 

Review Commission has ensured accessibility to its adjudication process by:

• Revising its rules of procedure so that they are presented in plain language; 

• Implementing an electronic filing system that provides access to all aspects of a 

pending case, and permits self-represented parties the option for paper filing in 

the event of a hardship;

• Posting agency procedures, procedural rules, and guidelines explaining the 

adjudication process on the Review Commission website in both English and 

Spanish; 

• Ensuring access to small employers through the Commission’s Simplified 

Proceedings, which eliminates the formality and filings required in conventional

adjudicatory proceedings; and 

• Permitting employers to participate in our proceedings as self-represented parties

and engage fully in the litigation of their cases.

E. Equity Training (Focus Area #6 of the Agency’s 90-Day Progress Report on 

Equity Assessment)

The Review Commission strives to maintain a diverse and inclusive work environment 

that establishes a sense of belonging among its staff. To ensure that our workforce is 

educated on these principles, all Review Commission employees and contractors 

completed a training course titled, “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility: 

Implementing Executive Order 14035 in the Federal Workplace.” Diversity, equity, and 

inclusion training was intended to assist staff at all levels to work better with colleagues 

of differing identities and backgrounds. The training also aimed to build awareness and 

skills which support marginalized employees and helps to cultivate a safe, 

compassionate, and equitable office culture where everyone feels valued. 

(3) Equity Action Plan

Procurement (Focus Area #1 from the Agency’s 90-Day Progress Report on Equity 

Assessment)

A. Barrier to Equitable Outcome(s)

The primary barrier to procurement opportunities for disadvantaged businesses is targeted 

access. Ensuring disadvantaged businesses have equitable access to procurement 

opportunities that are set aside for small business entities ensures enhanced opportunity 

for securing federal contract awards. Enhancing access requires both improvements to 
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agency-level procurement policy, as well as operational planning. For the purposes of 

procurement, underserved communities include businesses that meet the criteria of Title 

13, Part 124 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Specifically, a small disadvantaged 

business (SDB) for purposes of any federal subcontracting program is a concern that 

qualifies as small under Part 121 of Title 13 for the size standard corresponding to the 

six-digit North American Industry Classification System code that is assigned by the 

contracting officer to the procurement at issue, and that is owned and controlled by one or 

more socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. A firm may represent that it 

qualifies as an SDB for any federal subcontracting program if it believes in good faith 

that it is owned and controlled by one or more socially and economically disadvantaged 

individuals.

B. Action and Intended Impact on Barrier

OSHRC implemented a three-step approach to assess opportunities to better focus 

procurement toward more equitable outcomes. From that process, the agency has 

identified the following opportunities for expanding equitable access to procurement 

opportunities for SDBs.

1. Set goals that expand upon the current metrics related to both the number of 

procurement opportunities that are actively made available to SDBs and the agency 

spending that is awarded to this class of contractors.

2. Analyze program and agency-level procurement to identify areas to expand purchase 

opportunities to SDBs.

3. Interface with intragovernmental subject matter experts to discuss agency findings 

and identify possible programmatic enhancements on an iterative basis.

C. Tracking Progress

The target metrics related to equity in procurement will derive directly from step one of 

the equity procurement approaches. Targets will focus both on the percentage total 

number of procurement opportunities made available and the percentage total number of 

procurement dollars awarded to SDBs. 

Success regarding expanding access to agency procurement opportunities for SDBs

would essentially be a maximum percentage of the above metrics that can be achieved 

without detrimentally affecting agency operations. Metrics to be monitored with respect 

to operational efficiency are as follows:

1) Cost of increased staff hours for procurement personnel and administrative oversight.

2) Increased cost of actual goods and services due to decrease in economy-of-scale 

purchasing power when utilizing SBDs.
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D. Accountability 

The Review Commission will update internal policy to reflect its new goals related to the 

percentage of agency procurement opportunities and the percentage total of agency 

spending allocated to SDBs. These goals, related metrics, and budgetary data may be 

published in annual budget requests.

Internal Policy/Directives/ Rules (Focus Area #2 from the Agency’s 90-Day Progress 

Report on Equity Assessment) 

A. Barrier to Equitable Outcome(s)

The Review Commission has made significant progress in this focus area as mentioned 

above. One component still under review pertains to our procedural rules, which govern 

the agency’s adjudication process. OSHRC’s procedural rules directly impact the 

outcome of interactions with intragovernmental entities, agency staff, and the public. The 

primary barrier to determining the best method for ensuring that our procedural rules 

enhance equity is data collection and aggregation. This will inform our process of 

determining any necessary revisions and application of necessary changes. 

B. Action and Intended Impact on Barrier

The equity team has created a working group that consists of agency leadership and 

adjudication personnel. This working group has met to discuss how our procedural rules 

account for equity considerations and whether our processes or practices require 

reformulation or revision. The working group is reviewing feedback and any proposed 

changes will then undergo the rulemaking process.

C. Tracking Progress

The equity team will routinely consult with the policy working group to obtain progress 

on their review and assessment of our procedural rules.

D. Accountability 

The Review Commission will engage in the rulemaking process to revise its procedural 

rules if there are opportunities to enhance equity considerations. All recommended 

changes will be reviewed and approved by a vote of the agency’s Commission members.