Insurance News Update
OSHA SST Inspection Program
A high-placed OSHA official has confirmed that OSHA is suspending its Site-Specific Targeting (SST) Inspection Program in 2015.
This year, OSHA will instead focus its inspection efforts on the agency’s National Emphasis Programs and Local Emphasis Programs as well as leads generated by the new reporting rules that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.
According to the OSHA official, the decision to end the SST inspection program was due, in large part, to budgetary constraints imposed by the sequestration.
The annual list of SST inspection targets (also known as the “hit list”) was, in previous years, based on the injury and illness data that OSHA collected from employers. Employers with a higher-than-average DART rate were targeted for inspection. Due to the sequestration cuts, OSHA stopped collecting this establishment-specific injury and illness information. Without the data that determined the SST “targets,” the SST inspection program simply wasn’t tenable.
Another factor contributing to the decision to suspend the SST program is the massive influx of potential inspection targets generated by the new reporting requirements that went into effect this year. Since instituting the new rule, injury reports have been flooding into OSHA, generating a number of leads that the agency plans to pursue.
For more information on OSHA SST Inspection Program visit www.osha.gov or contact a SW Risk Specialist at 1-866-924-7976 (SWRM).
