I worked for a high rise window installer. One day OSHA caught a worker on the boom lift with no harness.

The fine was $5K.

OSHA is no joke

I had OSHA show up on one of our job sites basically because they were driving by one time. Only thing they got us on was the wrong colored extension ladder. Other than that, never seen them.

I’ve worked in two different medical types offices. OSHA compliance is a huge thing. We had yearly staff meeting to review procedure in both places and to make sure everything in the offices was up to standards. It usually took the team two days or so in both places to review all the paperwork, labeling, etc. just to ensure everything was updated and accurate. MDS sheets all complied and in their binders, safety equipment, product labeling, medications storage and lock up, gas tanks, surgical equipment, biohazard etc. But medical comes with a huge list of regulatory bodies other than OSHA.

Yes, they can just show up for inspection. No, they don’t often. As stated it’s usual. Response to accident or complaint. However any good business will ensure they are always in compliance.

Bigger jobs OSHA just set up there unless there is some kinda issue or your dealing with a lot of red flags hazmat and the like least in my experience of .lq if you in a feild where you have a set location once you reach a certin size or catch there notice or something thyll come by reguraly it seems

You can actually call OSHA before an inspection and they’ll work with you to get compliant without dining you

Few will admit it.

Any statement on dealing with OSHA, other than remarking that they can be helpful to improve safety, is potentiality evidence of various serious infractions.

The appropriate response is “No comment”.

Slightly off topic but another reason to not fuck around with safety stuff is lawsuits and the implications thereof. I work in finance and have seen business owners that were ready to sell their business for a lot of money and retire get hit with a lawsuit that probably would have have led to a not that big payout spook LPs/lenders concerned about a runaway Jury and kill the deal. Those lawsuits can drag on for years and put your retirement on hold.

Before I was managing the business, we had an incident. The complaints were really strange if it were a former employee. They were minor, surface-level things that someone might notice at a passing glance, but there was no mention of major issues that only an employee would know. Although OSHA said it was an employee I think it was an anonymous tip from another contractor we did some work for.

For example, there was no mention of the fact that our shop restroom was literally a bucket in a closet full of glass, or that there was no safety, or clean up protocols in place for stripping lead paint. Instead it was things like “no safety glasses or hearing protection for power tools”, when only the owner and myself ever operated them anyway.

A friend of mine had a major incident recently, over some not quite large enough tie-off points for scaffolding. He was also working on the rooftop directly across the street from the OSHA office, though

Yeah bro. Got a full random investigation one time. Did well because I am paranoid.

But they do exist, and they hit with fines like a hammer.

Unless someone dies or is seriously injured or you work in an industry where OSHA has a National Emphasis Program (NEP) it is unlikely that OSHA is going to show up.

There are approximately 8 million workplaces in the US and 130 million workers. OSHA employs around 900 Compliance officers to inspect each of those 8 million worksites.

Was in the cannabis space for 2 decades. Everyone smoked throughout the day at work. A fired employee turned us into Osha for drug use in the work place, and promoting drug use at work. Had to write up an anti-drug policy and post a notice.

Everyone continued to smoke. 🖕

No, but the local fire Marshal loves to stop by and harass our business quite often.

We had an OSHA report and visit at my last job. They were there for about a full work day, we got hit with some fines but got most reduced on the promise of fixing the issues. We fixed SOME of them, they never came back and checked.

About two months later we basically un-instituted the safety and environmental changes. Really considered calling them myself after that, wish I had.

I used to work in demolition of textile mills. We salvaged and sold the materials. This guy came around he was a slumlord locally. He told me a story about OSHA coming to a particularly dangerous apartment he was repairing. The osha rep was taking pictures. The guy said if you take another picture i am going to smash your camera. osha guy kept going. The guy smashed the camera into the guys face. Then the guy sued osha and won.

Is there a OSHA rule book somewhere that can be consulted?