Author: Vija Kelly
Date of Publication: 19.04. 2006
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YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW

EMPLOYEE COMPLAINTS TO OSHA
Probably your greatest vulnerability to inspections by OSHA comes from employee complaints. Not infrequently, these are complaints by disgruntled employees. How big is the problem? Federal and State OSHA inspectors conducted 24,490 complaint/incident related and 16, 553 referral/follow-up inspections in 2000.
OSHA is mandated, by law, to respond to employee complaints. What you need to understand is that these responses are not always inspections. They may be phone calls or faxes, as well as visits. Whether the OSHA response is a phone call, fax or visit, you need to be prepared to respond in a manner that quickly deals with the issue at hand and does not make you vulnerable to lengthy inspections. In a complaint-related inspection, the inspector is required to primarily investigate the complaint. Other glaring violations, however, may result in follow-up and more thorough inspections.
So how do you keep an OSHA response to an employee complaint from becoming a major disruption to your business? Keep these simple rules in mind:

Listen to what the OSHA representative has to say without comment
Admit nothing related to the complaint
Do not try to refute the complaint
Do not attempt to explain anything with respect to the complaint
Do not get into a discussion about whether or not the complaint is legitimate
Treat the notification of complaint seriously
Do not ask questions, this will only prolong the pain and may open the door to being asked for more information
Be polite.
On a phone call response by OSHA, don't invite them for a plant visit.
Don't raise the spectre of a disgruntled employee
Assure the OSHA representative that you will respond to any written directives.
Don't try to minimize the complaint
Don't accuse an employee of playing games or seeking revenge
Sound confident and knowledgeable

Complaint follow-up may come by letter or fax rather than an on-site visit. If this is the case, you will have a very limited time to respond-usually five days. You must respond seriously and follow all written directives.