Safety Knights

I have used it multiple times at my previous employers, and have been involved with some of our customers when they had OSHA come on-site for the consultative audits. My experience has been hit or miss with them. The issue is that OSHA has 2 sets of employees: (1) you're new to the field and out doing inspections, audits, etc., or (2) your experienced and know what you're doing, so they make you a supervisor and pull you out of the field.

I've had some of the consultative audits that were done properly and provided essentially a free third-party audit of our company to see where we stood. They also offer free trainings on various topics (usually 1-2 hours in length).

On the opposite end, I recently had a customer (chemical manufacturer) in Louisville who had me on-site for the days KY OSHA came in for their consultative audits. There were two different audits conducted on two different days: (1) a health audit, and (2) a safety audit. Both of the people they sent out to do the audits were recent college graduates with 2-3 years of experience (mostly with OSHA, not with an employer). The first person who did the health audit took an entire day and reviewed some administrative documentation (e.g., OSHA logs, policies/procedures, etc.), did a physical walkthrough, then several employee interviews - very similar to an actual OSHA audit. They made the customer's union reps aware and offered for them to accompany us during the audit. This first person did a fairly good job, but did catch him on a few things. For example, he stated all of the emergency eyewash stations were good since they were 100 feet from the injurious corrosives. However, the requirement is 55 feet (10 walking seconds). Since this was in the customer's favor, I didn't bring that up, but they still met the 55-feet rule. It was just something I caught that they weren't familiar with the requirements of what they were auditing.

My clients all refuse to consult with OSHA. Wisconsin is a Federal OSHA State, but we do have a State Safety Department under the Wisconsin Labor Department. They are just advisory and will only work with employers under 250 total employees. I used them a little before they put the 250 rule in. You had to sign an agreement that anything they saw you would fix, or they would refer it to Fed OSHA. For that they will inform OSHA you were working with them and get a pass on any Programed Audits by OSHA for six months. Did not exempt you from the Feds for accidents, or employee complaints. The smaller employers I work with now will not even consider working with State or Fed OSHA.

Since I work in Wyoming we have an OSHA state plan. In 2016, OSHA split their inspectors from the Compliance and Technical Assistance divisions, took 1/2 of their inspectors, and formed a new division; Workers' Compensation Safety & Risk. All of these inspectors are more like the OSHA TA of the past. They offer complimentary annual inspections of your facilities, review of your training programs, and are also a great source of clarification when it comes to current rules or rules which are being updated.

There is obviously one major catch. Do not call them in unless you are willing to correct the hazards they do find. It's a nasty little disclaimer but if you fail to correct the hazards they identify during the audit, they can and will turn over the information to the OSHA compliance division.

I have been involved with our OSHA state-run office since I started in Safety in 1997. When I worked at the Surface Coal mines for 10 years (and since they fall under MSHA and MSHA does not have a TA division in our state) I did not use their free services.

However, when I started with the City of Gillette in 2016, the WCS&R Division was quickly created soon thereafter. I have been working with our inspector for the last six years and it is an awesome relationship we have created. If I am having issues with reportability on an incident (OSHA 300 or no OSHA 300), or if I have a question about a new rule that is coming out (Walking surfaces, HazCom, etc.), I just shoot her an email and she responds when she can.

My advice is to use as many of their services as possible as long as your company is willing to correct the hazards, programs, and/or policies.

We have recently used the Arizona OSHA (ADOSH) to have our facility become a SHARP certified facility. This certification is for companies with 250 employees or less, we have 45 total employees. I have nothing negative to say about the services that were provided to our company, as they only made use BETTER!!

We have our ceremony on September 19th for our accomplishment!!