OSHA Figures Show an Uptick of Inspections During 2019OSHA Figures Show an Uptick of Inspections During 2019
December 3, 2019

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) final statistics for FY2019 document a “significant increase” in the number of inspections it conducted, and the amount of compliance assisted it provided, the agency announced in a release Tuesday.
OSHA said the 34,401 inspections carried out during the period was higher than the three preceding years. The agency also provided training on safety and health requirements to 1,392,611 workers – a record high – at OSHA Training Institute Education Centers and through its Susan Harwood Training Grant Program and Outreach Training Program. Over the fiscal year, OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program found 137,885 workplace hazards.
“OSHA’s efforts – rulemaking, enforcement, compliance assistance and training – are tools to accomplish our mission of safety and health for every worker,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Loren Sweatt said in an agency press release. “I am proud of the diligent, hard work of all OSHA personnel who contributed to a memorable year of protecting our nation’s workers.”
Earlier this year, worker safety advocacy organization National Employment Law Project (NELP) said that the number of OSHA inspections dropped during FY2017 and FY2018 and that employment of inspectors has reached a “historic low.”
“On the surface, OSHA reports a similar number of investigations over the past few years; but digging just a bit beneath the surface, it becomes clear that this is a false narrative and that the agency is prioritizing quantity over quality, in an effort to disguise what is really going on,” NELP Worker Health and Safety Program Director Deborah Berkowitz wrote in a May 14, 2019 piece on the FY2018 figures.
This November, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) issued a statement calling for employers to protect workers from workplace injuries and illnesses after the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released figures showing that 2.8 million non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses were documented in private industry during 2018.
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