OSHA’s Top 10

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Q&A with OSHA's Eric Harbin

Citation Solutions

A conversation with OSHA's Eric Harbin

OSHA and Safety+Health announced preliminary data for OSHA’s Top 10 most cited standards for fiscal year 2023 on Oct. 24 during the 2023 NSC Safety Congress & Expo in New Orleans.

Later that day, Eric Harbin, administrator for OSHA Region 6, sat down with S+H Associate Editor Kevin Druley to talk about the list, his background and actions safety professionals can take to help mitigate workplace hazards.

Here’s what he had to say. (The conversation has been edited.)

Safety+Health: Fall Protection – General Requirements is No. 1 for the 13th year in a row, while Fall Protection – Training Requirements has been in the Top 10 for seven straight years. Why do falls continue to be such a problem for employers? What steps is OSHA taking?

Harbin: You know, it’s interesting. Fall hazard violations remain at the top of the list because the hazard is present in most construction worksites. That’s pretty visible. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, year after year, it’s the leading cause of death for workers in the construction industry. In May, OSHA issued its National Emphasis Program for falls. Although most of the regions had their own different approach to addressing falls in the workplace, this kind of nationalized it and put a unified approach on how we target fall exposures in the industry. But as long as falls remain the leading cause of fatalities and serious injuries in all industries, the agency is determined that an increase in enforcement and outreach activity is warranted. So, the NEP really supports enforcement and establishing guidance for locating and inspecting fall hazards. It allows our compliance officers to open inspections whenever they observe someone working at height. It focuses on educating employers about effective ways to keep their workers safe. If a compliance officer determines an inspection is not necessary after entering a worksite and observing work activities, they will provide outreach on fall protection and leave the site. This year was also the 10th anniversary of our Fall Protection Stand-Down. Honestly, it’s one of OSHA’s most successful safety awareness campaigns, and it reaches far, far beyond just construction sites.

S+H: The total number of violations appears to have increased from FY 2022 to FY 2023. What does it represent to OSHA when violations are on the rise?

Harbin: So, it’s interesting you bring that up, that you noticed that. There’s really a couple of different reasons why you see that. The violations per inspection have been pretty consistent. The change in it is pretty minor. But what has increased is the number of inspections that were done in FY 2023 compared with FY 2022. More than 2,000 additional inspections were conducted. That can be tied to the number of compliance officers we hired during the year, kind of beefing up our enforcement staff. During the year, OSHA added 227 compliance officers. Some of those offset natural attrition, retirement or people moving on to different opportunities, but that’s a considerable amount of staff for an agency our size, a small agency, to onboard. We also took time to train our folks. We use our OSHA Training Institute to help them be able to conduct inspections, so the more training that they have, the faster they’re fully functional, fully able to get out and do inspections. So, you have the increase in inspections and the increase in the number of CSHOs. I think both of those are indicators of why you see more violations in 2023 as opposed to 2022. And the agency is working very hard to make sure that those new people we hired were given all the training they needed – that we could reasonably be able to do during the course of the year – to get them fully functional.

S+H: What are some other notable trends or takeaways from the Top 10?

Harbin: Construction remains about 51% of the inspection activity that federal OSHA does during the course of the year. So, the notable thing about that is it has actually decreased ever so slightly – from the mid-50s to the low-50 percent of our inspections. Also, with the number of violations cited, far and away, Fall Protection was the No. 1 most frequently cited – not only overall, but as serious and as willful. And it’s actually complicated to develop a willful violation, but we do see how that happens. It’s also interesting that Hazard Communication consistently ranks in the top five most frequently cited standards, both nationally and in all 10 regions. Serious violations are about 70% of the cited cases, with employers not focusing on developing or implementing a written hazcom program to ensure workers handling chemicals are provided effective information and training. OSHA’s Powered Industrial Trucks standard consistently, year in and year out, ranks among the top 10 most frequently cited standards and has been by far the most commonly cited standard in the warehousing and storage industry over the past three years. Machine Guarding was cited 87% of the time as serious. That’s a pretty high percentage of serious violations for a particular standard. And really, it’s cited based on inadequate guarding.

S+H: As a regional administrator, you lead OSHA policy implementation in five states. How often do you talk with the agency’s nine other regional administrators? How do the regions work together with federal OSHA to ensure employers provide safe workplaces?

Harbin: That’s a good question. I’m quite honored to say that we have a very close relationship. The regional administrators, we try to talk as a group roughly once a week. We also work well with our national office. We have calls about the same frequency with our national office in D.C. to stay abreast of what the important issues are that the national office is working on. These are always very interactive, productive conversations and give all of us the knowledge we need to make sure that we’re making informed decisions to support initiatives across the country that optimistically will improve workplace safety and health.

S+H: Which experiences or observations from early in your occupational safety career continue to influence you today?

Harbin: It’s interesting. I’ve often thought about this: What early in my OSHA career really was formative and has left an impression on me since the start? And I keep thinking back to one of my early inspections. I was inspecting a worksite and I came to a person who was operating a box-crushing machine, and I didn’t necessarily see issues with it, but during the course of the investigation, I wanted to speak to the employee to make sure the person understood who I was, why I was there and what was of interest. And it was just absolutely amazing that the person told me that she’d been working there for 10 years and no one ever asked her about her job and how she could do her job better, safer, more efficiently. The person just really lit up at having the ability to interact. And the person was very insightful into what was going on in her workplace. And for that reason, I always think back to that. Because it’s important for me as a regional administrator to make sure that we’re talking to the workers and listening to the workers. And that always circles back when I’m interacting with my own staff, to hear what workers have to say. They are the eyes and ears of the employer throughout the work location, and they can oftentimes point the employer in the right direction to find and fix hazards that might exist.

S+H: OSHA expanded its Severe Violator Enforcement Program in September 2022 to include violations of all hazards and agency standards. What drove that decision?

Harbin: The SVEP was expanded to support OSHA’s objective to focus additional enforcement efforts on all significant hazards and violations by concentrating inspection resources on employers who have demonstrated a recalcitrance or indifference to their OSHA obligations by committing willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations of OSHA requirements. Severe violator cases result in additional enforcement actions, including mandatory follow-up inspections and, where appropriate, increased awareness of the enforcement actions at the corporate level, corporatewide settlement agreements, enhanced settlement provisions, and federal court enforcement under Section 11B of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

S+H: What SVEP trends has the agency observed over the past year?

Harbin: The number of inspections qualifying for SVEP increased after the expanded criteria. So, in 2023, we had 266 inspections that qualified for SVEP. During the previous five years, OSHA averaged 80 SVEP-qualifying inspections per year.

S+H: What kind of impact can National Emphasis Programs have on the Top 10?

Harbin: When you look at the common safety hazards that these emphasis programs address, obviously, we have the emphasis program for falls, which can be in construction and outside. Whenever we put National Emphasis Programs in place, I think it is impactful on the worksites we go to and the standards we cite when we go to those workplaces. Optimistically and in a perfect world, the employers who are aware that they are covered by a NEP, really what we would prefer that they do is reach out to OSHA and ask for help. If they have it in-house, if they have a safety professional who they like to work with, that’s great. We have consultation programs in all states, a free service for all employers. They are always welcome to call their local OSHA office to find out if there are any additional resources they might be able to use.

S+H: Although OSHA doesn’t have a standard on ergonomics, it can issue citations for ergonomic violations through the General Duty Clause. As musculoskeletal disorders remain prominent, what should employers know about MSDs?

Harbin: MSDs are the most frequently reported causes of lost or restricted work time for workers. This is across the country. With overexertion, you can have sprains and strains, and it could be in the shoulder, the lower back. It covers a whole range of things. The high-risk industries include construction, food processing, office work with intensive keying, health care, transportation and warehousing, among others. Implementing an ergonomic process using the principles of a safety and health program and medical management is an effective way to reduce the risk of developing MSDs in these high-risk industries.

What employers really should focus on to reduce the chance of injury is designing work tasks to limit exposures to ergonomic risk factors. Look at implementing engineering controls, where feasible. That’s the most desirable, to implement a physical change in the workplace. An example of this could be a device to assist with lifting or repositioning heavy objects. Next, they might look at administrative or work practice controls that might be appropriate in cases when engineering controls cannot be implemented. This could be something as simple as requiring a sticker to be on heavy loads or warning employees that the load is heavy or to seek help before lifting. The last thing that employers can do is look at personal protection solutions. That’s the least effective control, and it’s limited when dealing with ergonomic hazards. But an example of this is using padding to reduce direct contact with hard, sharp or vibrating objects.

OSHA always looks at the evidence in each case before issuing any citation alleging ergonomic hazards. The basic criteria used in deciding whether a citation is issued are those posed by the General Duty Clause itself. First, does the hazard exist? Is the hazard recognized? Whether the hazard is causing or likely to cause serious physical harm to the worker, and lastly, is there a feasible means of abatement to reduce the hazard?

S+H: What is OSHA doing to help lower MSD injuries?

Harbin: OSHA is not just an enforcement agency. We take a multifaceted approach. In addition to enforcement, we do training and work with outreach, education and assistance. Our National Emphasis Program on warehousing and distribution center operations combines outreach, education and enforcement to improve worker health outcomes by providing resources for employers to reduce exposure to ergonomic hazards.

On Oct. 13, OSHA began initiating comprehensive safety inspections in this industry, to include providing worksites with training on ergonomic hazards and addressing any issues identified. OSHA will continue our commitment to devote enforcement resources to industries employing historically high numbers of temporary workers.

In 2024, the agency plans to continue to expand its Temporary Worker Initiative bulletin series, with new topics to include ergonomics, and to translate existing bulletins into other languages.

OSHA’s website hosts a safety and health topics page on ergonomics that provides additional informational resources on MSDs and guidance for high-risk industries including nursing homes, shipyards, retail grocery stores, foundries, and poultry and other types of meat processing plants.

S+H: What can employers do to avoid being a statistic in the FY 2024 Top 10 list?

Harbin: Our vision at OSHA is to see safety and health established as a core value in every workplace in America. Safety is a fundamental right for every worker. Everyone deserves equal access to the highest safety standards. Safety must be an enterprise-wide value and effort in every business and organization. In practice, this means developing effective safety and health management systems, listening and learning through worker participation, and striving to be a leader in your industry. We want businesses to align their operational values and best practices with this core personal value and go beyond compliance to ensure workers are safe and protected.

S+H: Where can employers turn for assistance?

Harbin: OSHA understands that although enforcement is a critical part of its mission, we cannot solely enforce our way to safe and healthful workplaces. We also provide businesses with the assistance they need to develop health and safety management programs. OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program offers small-business employers confidential occupational safety and health services. The consultants work with employers to find and fix workplace hazards, give advice for complying with OSHA standards, help establish and improve safety and health programs, and train workers. Keep in mind that onsite consultations do not result in penalties or citations. We also have compliance assistance specialists in OSHA’s regional and area offices across the country who can help small businesses comply with OSHA standards and understand their responsibilities and workers’ rights. You can visit our website and search “compliance assistance specialists” to find the one nearest you.

S+H: What might you like to add that you think readers should know?

Harbin: I would encourage employers to listen to their workers. Understand and make sure they know that their workers have the right to a safe and healthy workplace. I would encourage employers and workers to read about this on OSHA’s website and know what rights workers have and be respectful of those rights.

 

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