Some of the calls and emails we receive from clients may be preventive and simple, others can be panicked, and everything in between. One of the things that sets SuretyHR apart is that we don’t just have a safety services team – we encourage our clients to take advantage of those services. We offer a 24/7 OSHA-Safety hotline to all of our clients, we can assist them in OSHA informal conferences, and we advise them to call us right away when OSHA is involved (or will be). The knee-jerk reaction for many people is to just start talking when OSHA shows up, announced or not. We’d recommend contacting us and/or your attorney before doing anything else. If you don’t have an attorney that is well-versed on labor and employment law, we can connect you with one. This isn’t something for your tax or real estate attorney to handle. There’s no need to make any admissions of guilt during the inspection. The importance of understanding the OSHA process and your rights before they come knocking can’t be overstated. Every inspector will present differently, but they’re always trying to get information – that’s their job. Regardless of what they find during the inspection, there’s a good chance the employer may have recourse in negotiating a settlement better than the “as written” citation.
It’s not unusual for our safety team to assist clients in getting a case dismissed before it even reaches the penalty stage, so it’s impossible to place a value on those. We could try, but that’s not very transparent marketing – since we’d only be guessing at what a specific inspector may have done. What we can place a value on is the average savings between proposed and final penalties, by compiling the last few years of inspections that we assisted clients on. The amount our clients paid out to OSHA was an average of 56% lower than the initially proposed fine. This is not a guaranteed savings, as the savings ranged from 30% to 100%. We’d caution employers to be leery of any consultant that assures you that they can save you a specific amount, or a minimum amount. While there is the “letter of the law” that all inspectors should follow, much of the turnout is subjective to each inspector’s approach.
If your organization needs help following an OSHA inspection and/or citation, please reach out to us at 440-249-5201. You can also find more information on SuretyHR’s safety services here.
