OSHA: Cooperative Compliance

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is replacing hard-nosed inspections with a voluntary compliance program to improve safety at the nation's most dangerous workplaces.

The agency is expanding a pilot program conducted in Maine in which the 200 companies in the state with the highest workers' compensation rates were given the opportunity to commit to high safety goals in return for a reduced chance of an OSHA inspection.

The trade gave companies time to improve conditions in the workplace and avoid OSHA fines. The Maine project reduced serious injuries at 70 percent of the companies involved.

Now OSHA is offering participation in its Cooperative Compliance Program (CCP) to 12,250 employers nationwide. High-risk companies who agree to the program will reduce their chances for an OSHA inspection from 100 percent to 30 percent, the agency says. Companies agree to find and fix safety problems, involve employees in a safety and health program, and provide injury data to OSHA.

OSHA chose companies for the nationwide CCP by reviewing their injury and illness rates, instead of examining their workers' compensation rates, as the agency did in Maine. Employer groups in other states argued that the number of workers' compensation claims does not accurately reflect safety conditions.

Companies can elect not to join the CCP, but those that don't will remain on OSHA's primary inspection list, increasing the likelihood that they will be fined for poor workplace conditions.

"Employers are not forced or required to join the CCP," said new OSHA Director Charles Jeffress. "This program offers employers a choice: partnership or traditional enforcement. It also enables us to focus our agency's resources where we can do the most good."

OSHA spokeswoman Susan Fleming noted that the agency has a recognition program for companies with excellent safety records.

"We recognize the best and intervene with the ones who need help," Fleming said.

Voluntary compliance programs are becoming more common across government. The Environmental Protection Agency has been experimenting with a voluntary program in which companies come up with plans to reduce pollution at their facilities. The U.S. Coast Guard worked with the towing and barge industry to reduce fatalities. And the Food and Drug Administration partnered with the pharmaceutical industry to get drugs to market in an average of 15 months, an eight-month improvement.