The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is proposing greater involvement by employees in federally funded safety and health consultation visits to worksites, including posting the results of the visits. State agencies, with funding from OSHA, run on-site consultation programs which make available, at no cost to the requesting employer, trained safety and health personnel to identify workplace hazards, provide advice on compliance with OSHA regulations and standards, and assist in establishing safety and health programs. OSHA is proposing revisions to the rules governing consultation visits and requests comments on or before Sept. 30, 1999.
Employees often have firsthand knowledge of hazards in the workplace.
They are able to make valuable suggestions that can assist in carrying out the consultant's recommendations for eliminating the hazards, as well as improving the employer's ongoing safety and health efforts. The consultation visits are a very important and successful part of OSHA's program to provide workplace safety and health. Last year, the consultants made visits to 24,000 worksites and found 145,000 hazards that were corrected. Where there is no authorized representative, or one cannot be determined, the consultant is to speak with a reasonable number of employees on matters concerning workplace safety and health. The employer would have to post a list of the serious hazards and hazards addressed by OSHA rules that are identified by the consultant, the corrective action proposed, and the dates for completion ot the corrective action.