Ex-OSHA inspector: ‘I was told to fabricate citations’
February 6, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, OSHA news, Who Got Fined and Why?, inspections
Perhaps you’ve heard advice about what to do during and after an OSHA inspection, such as follow the inspector and challenge things you think the OSHA rep is getting incorrect. Here’s a good reason to take that advice seriously.
A former OSHA inspector has told a TV station in Houston that he had to “game the numbers” when the agency came under Congressional pressure for not conducting enough inspections.
Ronnie Benavides, who worked for OSHA for more than a decade, told KHOU-TV that he felt pressured to be more aggressive, to do more inspections and write more citations, even if they had to be fabricated.
Benavides detailed one inspection in particular. A construction worker fell 29 floors to his death.
He said he and other OSHA inspectors who went to the site to investigate went overboard. He said they cited contractors for things that weren’t violations.
OSHA in the Houston area may have been under particular pressure to boost inspections.
In 2005, an explosion at the nearby Texas City BP refinery killed 15 workers.
Critics said OSHA wasn’t aggressive enough in enforcing safety at the plant.
OSHA denied any allegation that citations were manufactured.
The agency said more inspections were conducted in the Houston area in response to a building boom there.
The United Steelworkers Union told KHOU that it welcomed OSHA getting more aggressive, saying it’s long overdue.
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Tags: citations, construction, inspections, OSHA
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February 10th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
If this ex-OSHA inspector followed instructions to fabricate citations, I think it says quite a bit about his sense of ethics. I have participated in numerous OSHA inspections over my 25 years in Risk Management. Yes OSHA inspectors can be quite picky and yes you need to accompany them on inspections, take notes and take photos, but this should be done in a collaborative effort. Don’t offer things up but listen when they speak. They are there for a reason. True, not always for a legitimate one as in a situation in which a disgruntled employee is trying to make trouble. Have your documentation in order, your training effectively done, and your engineering controls in place. Yes, you may find a need to request a hearing to protest a citation. I have found these hearings to be fair and effective.
February 11th, 2009 at 6:58 am
I have participated in numerous OSHA inspections over the last 17 years as a safety consultant. While I have found some OSHA inspectors overly aggressive, I have never seen an OSHA inspector fabricate a citation. Recently, I predicted the exact content of a citation one of my clients was going to receive before the citation was written.
Having said that, OSHA has come under political pressure in the past from various politicians, both Democrat and Republican. I would not be surprised to see increased demands for enforcement from the Obama administration.
However, if any OSHA area office is found guilty of promoting the fabrication of citations, then that would undermine the credibility of OSHA as a whole and reduce or eliminate OSHA’s effectiveness as an organization. I think OSHA recognizes this and takes great pains to ensure the inspection process is fair and professional.