Workplace Safety and Health: OSHA Could Improve Federal Agencies' Safety Programs with a More Strategic Approach to Its Oversight
GAO-06-379
Published: Apr 21, 2006. Publicly Released: Apr 21, 2006.
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Highlights
Federal workers' compensation costs exceeded $1.5 billion in 2004, with approximately 148,000 new claims filed that year. Because of concerns for the safety of federal workers, as well as the costs associated with unsafe workplaces, GAO described the characteristics of federal agencies' safety programs and the implementation challenges they face, and assessed how well the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversees and assists federal agencies' efforts to develop and administer their safety programs.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Labor | The Secretary of Labor should direct OSHA to develop a targeted inspection program for federal worksites based on the new worker injury and illness data federal agencies are required to collect by requiring that relevant portions or summaries of that data be included in agencies' annual reports to OSHA or by obtaining the data from agencies or worksites through periodic, selected surveys. | OSHA initiated a program for targeted federal agency inspections called Federal Agency Targeted Inspection Program (FEDTARG). Federal worksites with high numbers of lost-time injuries at departments with high injury rates have been selected for inspection. OSHA will further explore long-term strategies for the collection of federal agency injury and illness data, including possible use of a single electronic database such as the Department of Labor's Safety and Health Management Information System (SHIMS). As OSHA's federal agency data collection process improves, its targeting criteria will be further refined. OSHA finished implementing FEDTARG in 2008 and renewed it in 2009, but... continued using OWCP data instead of injury and illness data to determine which sites to inspect. In addition, OSHA worked with a subcommittee of the Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH) and the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics to design a web-based system that will allow OSHA to collect site-specific data from the agencies. In 2010, OSHA again renewed the targeting program and used FY09 OWCP data to create a list of federal agency worksites that OSHA regions are required to inspect in FY10. A primary inspection list was developed using a random numbers table. On the primary list are 100% of the establishments reporting 100 or more lost time cases (LTCs), 50% of the establishments reporting 50 to 99 LTCs, and 10% of the establishments reporting 20 to 49 LTCs. OSHA regions that have the resources to conduct more targeted federal agency inspections than are included on their primary inspection list may request a secondary random inspection list from the Office of Federal Agency Programs. In addition, OSHA is drafting proposed regulatory changes that will allow the agency to collect this data on a recurring annual basis. Data from this government-wide system will be used, in part, to develop an inspection list of federal worksites with the highest injury and illness rates.
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| Department of Labor | The Secretary of Labor should direct OSHA to track violations disputed by federal agencies to their resolution and ensure that unresolved disputes are reported to the President. |
OSHA has developed a separate tracking system in the Office of Federal Agency Programs for disputed violations that are forwarded to the National Office for resolution. There were no unresolved violations at the time of this audit. They anticipate one case to be formally forwarded to the National Office for resolution in the near future, which will be tracked appropriately.
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| Department of Labor | The Secretary of Labor should direct OSHA to conduct evaluations of the largest and most hazardous federal agencies as required. | The Department of Labor modified its approach for evaluating the level of agency safety and health programming, including methods such as onsite reviews, workplace inspections, occupational injury and illness data analysis, and safety and health report reviews. OSHA closely monitors the performance of the federal agencies in meeting the injury and illness reduction goals of the Presidential Safety, Health, and Return-to-Employment (SHARE) Initiative, originally established in 2004 and renewed for an additional three years through FY09. Many federal agencies have made significant progress in reducing both their total and lost time injury case rates (SHARE Goals 1 & 2). Through the use of...
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| Department of Labor | The Secretary of Labor should direct OSHA to use evaluations, inspection data, and annual reports submitted by federal agencies to assess the effectiveness of their safety programs, and include, in OSHA's annual report to the President, an assessment of each agency's worker safety program and recommendations for improvement. | In 2006, OSHA initiated an enhanced process in reviewing agency reports, injury and illness data, inspection results, new initiatives, and stated accomplishments to assess the quality of federal safety and health programs, focusing on programmatic strengths and weaknesses. It also took steps to enhance the reliability and consistency of government agency assessments. In 2007, agencies were provided a template to use in creating their reports, and their feedback has been systematically placed in a database and analyzed. Expanded information on specific topics was requested, including, for example, motor vehicle safety programs and seatbelt usage, transition to 29 CFR Part 1904 injury and...
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Occupational health and safety programsOccupational safetyProgram evaluationProgram managementRegulatory agenciesSafety regulationSafety standardsWorkers compensationFederal employeesFederal agenciesSurveysProgram implementation