Illinois Department of Labor – Safety Inspection and Education Division
Initial approval date: Sept. 1, 2010
Program certification date: Not applicable
Final approval date: Not applicable

Every year, OSHA evaluates each of the 27 State Plan states and territories. Today, we’re looking at the federal agency’s review of Illinois.

A public employee-only program established in 2010, the Illinois Department of Labor – Safety Inspection and Education Division has completed only two of the required seven steps in its development plan. According to OSHA’s fiscal year 2013 Federal Annual Monitoring and Evaluation Report on the State Plan, IDOL-SIED has been slow to fill inspector and consultant vacancies. Fewer inspectors resulted in the agency conducting 61 percent of the projected 1,347 inspections for FY 2013.

Illinois fulfilled three of the nine recommendations listed in its FY 2012 report:

• Include a process for grouping violations, assessing hazard severity and probability in the Field Operations Manual.
• Enter all abatement information into the information system.
• Respond to all standard and federal program changes by established due dates.

Of the 13 recommendations in the FY 2013 report, six are new. Some of the report’s recommendations include:

• Ensuring that staff is trained on the process to assess probability and severity, and that information is documented for every violation cited
• Recording all hazard documentation, such as air monitoring, when respiratory protection citations are issued
• Filling all vacant positions by the agreed-upon date

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