OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs
Improved Oversight and Controls Would Better Ensure Program Quality
GAO-09-395, Jun 18, 2009
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The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for ensuring workplace safety. OSHA has established a number of programs, including the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), that take a cooperative approach to obtaining compliance with safety and health regulations and OSHA's standards. OSHA established the VPP in 1982 to recognize worksites with exemplary safety and health programs. GAO was asked to review (1) the number and characteristics of employer worksites in the VPP and factors that have influenced growth, (2) the extent to which OSHA ensures that only qualified worksites participate in the VPP, and (3) the adequacy of OSHA's efforts to monitor performance and evaluate the effectiveness of the VPP. GAO analyzed OSHA's VPP data, reviewed a representative sample of VPP case files, and interviewed agency officials.
The VPP has grown steadily since its inception in 1982, with the number of employer worksites in the program more than doubling--from 1,039 sites in 2003 to 2,174 sites in 2008. Although industries represented have not changed significantly, with the chemical industry having the largest number of sites in the VPP, the number of sites in the motor freight transportation industry--which includes U.S. Postal Service sites--increased tenfold from 2003 to 2008. The proportion of smaller VPP sites--those with fewer than 100 workers--increased from 28 percent in 2003 to 39 percent in 2008. Key factors influencing growth of the VPP have been OSHA's emphasis on expansion of the program and VPP participants' outreach to other employers. OSHA's internal controls are not sufficient to ensure that only qualified worksites participate in the VPP. The lack of a policy requiring documentation in VPP files regarding follow-up actions taken in response to incidents, such as fatalities and serious injuries, at VPP sites limits the national office's ability to ensure that its regions have taken the required actions. Such actions include reviewing sites' safety and health systems and determining whether sites should remain in the program. GAO reviewed OSHA's VPP files for the 30 sites that had fatalities from January 2003 to August 2008 and found that the files contained no documentation of actions taken by the regions' VPP staff. GAO interviewed regional officials and reviewed the inspection files for these sites and found that some sites had safety and health violations related to the fatalities, including one site with seven serious violations. As a result, some sites that no longer met the definition of an exemplary worksite remained in the VPP. In addition, OSHA's oversight is limited because it does not have internal controls, such as reviews by the national office, to ensure that regions consistently comply with VPP policies for monitoring sites' injury and illness rates and conducting on-site reviews. For example, the national office has not ensured that regions follow up as required when VPP sites' injury and illness rates rise above the minimum requirements for the program, including having sites develop plans for reducing their rates. Finally, OSHA has not developed goals or measures to assess the performance of the VPP, and the agency's efforts to evaluate the program's effectiveness have been inadequate. OSHA officials said that low injury and illness rates are effective measures of performance. These rates, however, may not be the best measures because GAO found discrepancies between the rates reported by worksites annually to OSHA and the rates OSHA noted during its on-site reviews. In addition, OSHA has not assessed the impact of the VPP on sites' injury and illness rates. In response to a recommendation in a GAO report issued in 2004, OSHA contracted with a consulting firm to conduct a study of the program's effectiveness. However, flaws in the design of the study and low response rates made it unreliable as a measure of effectiveness. OSHA officials acknowledged the study's limitations but had not conducted or planned other evaluations of the VPP.
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Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
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- Open
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Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To ensure proper controls and measurement of program performance, the Secretary of Labor should direct the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health to develop a documentation policy regarding information on follow-up actions taken by OSHA's regional offices in response to fatalities and serious injuries at VPP sites.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: Open
Comments: During FY09 and FY10, OSHA will institute administrative actions and strengthening current procedures to improve documentation following a fatality, catastrophe, serious injury, or other significant event at a VPP site. Specifically, the agency is reviewing and making needed improvements in area and regional office actions and documentation. These actions will ensure that copies of internal written communications; notes documenting oral communications, both internal and between OSHA and the participant; and pertinent information relating to the event, its causes, and OSHA actions taken are placed in the participant file. This information includes a summary of enforcement actions with final disposition or contested status. IMIS information from related enforcement actions will also be placed in the participant file. In addition, upon learning of a fatality or other significant event at a VPP facility, OSHA has reinforced the policy requiring Regions to immediately provide specified information to the national office, such as conference calls with the participant, and enforcement results, and final disposition. Following a fatality or other significant event and the ensuing investigation, OSHA will reinforce procedures to determine appropriate action with respect to VPP participation. If it is decided to terminate the VPP participant, the Agency will follow termination procedures and include the appropriate documentation in the participant file, such as the decision and rationale. OSHA will also expand its documentation of activities and implement an annual review of a sample of Regionally-maintained VPP files of participants who have experienced a fatality or other significant event, and subsequently provide results of the review and recommendations to the regions. In FY10, OSHA will evaluate the VPP and other cooperative programs, including a review of policies and procedures relating to fatalities and other significant events at VPP sites. The agency will make changes to the VPP and other programs based on the evaluation results. GAO will close this recommendation when OSHA provides evidence that these actions have been completed.
Recommendation: To ensure proper controls and measurement of program performance, the Secretary of Labor should direct the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health to establish internal controls that ensure consistent compliance by the regions with OSHA's VPP policies for conducting on-site reviews and monitoring injury and illness rates so that only qualified worksites participate in the program.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: Open
Comments: OSHA reported that VPP policies and procedures concerning application, onsite evaluation, and approval processes are specified in the "VPP Policies and Procedures Manual" (April 18, 2008) and the VPP Federal Register Notice, 74 FR 927 (January 9, 2009). The agency directed all staff to follow these policies and procedures, and modifications to them are being reviewed. VPP teams use a standard set of VPP onsite evaluation reports/worksheets. OSHA completed revisions to these report/worksheet templates that address changes published in the January 9, 2009 Federal Register Notice, and made the templates available electronically to staff. Agency staff were instructed to use these revised templates for all VPP onsite evaluations and to adhere to revised evaluation timeframes, including scheduling and conducting onsite evaluations and reporting regularly to the national office, who will track regional compliance. A new policy has been implemented regarding communication with applicants and participants about VPP approval: the team no longer may discuss its recommendation with the applicant/participant until approval to discuss this information is received from the Regional Administrator, and the team can no longer provide the applicant/participant with a copy of its draft report without first obtaining approval from the Regional Administrator. To ensure that only qualified applicants/participants gain initial or continuing approval, the Regional Administrator must receive a briefing on any 90-day items and their completion. OSHA is also reinforcing actions each region must take when VPP requirements are no longer met. For instance, when the agency learns of deficiencies in a Star participant's safety and health management system, the region will determine appropriate action, and when warranted, the agency will require a 2-year rate reduction plan, will impose 1-year conditional status, or both. To improve tracking and oversight of the regions' actions in response to VPP participant deficiencies, the agency made several changes, such as adding new categories of data to track excessive 3-year participant injury and illness rates, 2-year rate reduction plans, and 1-year conditional status; and implementing procedures to examine a sampling of VPP participant files maintained in the regions. Moreover, the agency will implement new procedures to examine a sampling of VPP participant self-evaluations to verify their quality and compliance with VPP requirements, and to review regional handling of the self-evaluations. OSHA is also implementing a new policy/procedure to prevent discrepancies between the rates OSHA uses in calculating its annual summary of VPP data and the rates participants report in their annual self-evaluation. Whenever a VPP team conducts an onsite reapproval evaluation, the team must not only review injury and illness data and recalculate 3-year rates, but also must compare the rates verified onsite with the rates reported in the participant's most recent annual self-evaluation. OSHA will also revise procedures and tracking mechanisms related to Medical Access Orders (MAO) and regularly review the regions' MAO compliance. The regions were instructed to establish a regional MAO tracking and documentation system, so that MAOs are requested in a timely manner and the appropriate documentation is included in the participant file. OSHA will also evaluate the VPP and other cooperative programs to determine: VPP's effectiveness, role in promoting safety and health, and effective resource allocation. OSHA will use the evaluation results to make changes to VPP. GAO will close this recommendation when these actions have been completed.
Recommendation: To ensure proper controls and measurement of program performance, the Secretary of Labor should direct the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health to establish a system for monitoring the performance of the VPP by developing specific performance goals and measures for the program.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: Open
Comments: OSHA continues to believe that injury and illness rates are the most appropriate measure of VPP's impact. The agency agrees to look further into this issue and explore additional ways to measure participant performance and program impact. In FY10, the agency will evaluate VPP and, where appropriate, other cooperative programs. This analysis, which will include current and potential performance goals and measures, will determine VPP's effectiveness; review VPP's role in promoting safety and health; and determine effective resource allocation. Based on these results, OSHA will make changes to VPP and other cooperative programs to ensure they make the best use of appropriate levels of resource allocations, and work effectively with other agency activities. GAO will close this recommendation when OSHA provides documentation that these actions were completed.