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![handle is hein.gao/gaobaaxhn0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
DOCUBEUNT RESURB
05990 - (B1426462]
Workplace inspection Program Weak in Detecting and Correcting
Serious Hazards. HRD-78-34; B-163375. Kay 19, 1978. 33 pp. + 3
appendices (11 pp.).
Report to the Congress; by Bluer B. Staats. Comptroller General.
I'sue Area: Consumer and Worker Protection: Death and Serious
Disability Caused by Wnrkplace Safety Hazards (910).
Contact: Human Resources Div.
Organization Concerned: Department of Labor; Occupational Safety
and Health Administration.
Congressional Relevance: House Committee on Education and Labor;
Senate Committee on Human Resources; Congress.
authority: 0 'upational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.c.
651).
The Department of Labor (DOL) estimated that during
1976 about 4,500 private industry workers suffered fatal
work-related injuries and illnesses and that about 1 of every 11
workers had nonfatal irjuries and illnesses. T,.q Occupational
Safety and Health administration (OSHA) is responsible for
trying to assure safe and healthful working conditions for more
than 60 million workers. It establishes national occupational
safety and health standards and condcts inspections of
workplaces. Findings/Conclusions: A revie * of IVCL and State
inspections revealed that: scrious work hazards were sometimes
not identified--this often resulted from inadequate guidance and
monitoring; compliance officers were unaware of the
applicability of some standards and believed cthers were
unenforceable; required followup inspections to assure
elimination of serious hazards sometimes were not made and
often, when-made, %ere untimely; citations for scme serious
hazards were withdrawn, sometimes without good cause, without
-evinw and without rdinspections; many serious hazards were
zited as nonserious violations, and therefore, followup
inspections were not made; and requests for additional tie to
correct hazards were rcutinely approved without determining that
employers tried to correct hazards. Recommendations: The
Secretary of Labor should direct OSHA and the States to
establish a contuinuing program for evaluating the effectiveness
of inspections to include: identifying worksite hazards likely
to exist in a particular industry and requiring compliance
officers to adequately report findings; developing procedures
for effective supervisory review of inspection case files;
reinspecting vorksites periodic&lly and evaluating cimpliance
officers on the job; and reviewing officers# recommendations for
newu standards. The Secretary should inform DOL regional
offices and States that certain staudards are mandatory. The
Secretary should require OSHA and the States to: confer with
compliance officers involved before deciding whether to withdraw
citations; review written justifications for modified or deleted](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaobaaxhn0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)