When word gets out that an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspector is at the front desk, your first reaction is often “Oh no; not today!”
An OSHA inspection is an opportunity to show how your company identifies, assesses, and controls hazards in the workplace, and that opportunity comes with pressure that can affect how the agency perceives you. Preparing in advance for this and other agency inspections can ease some of that pressure, especially when your employees know what to expect.
Inspectors also talk with your people to understand how safety works day to day beyond the written programs. The rules for frontline employees and managers differ, so knowing them ahead of time helps interviews run more smoothly.
Can employees refuse an interview?
Yes. For frontline employees, participation is voluntary. Managers don't have the same option.
Voluntary participation means that if an employee is not comfortable being interviewed by an OSHA inspector, they have every right to say no and step away, and the inspector would then need to find another employee to interview.
Employees can also decline to answer specific questions during the interview or stop it altogether at any time. If OSHA decides someone's testimony is vital to the conduct of an inspection or investigation, it can issue an administrative subpoena to compel the employee to share what they know about the situation.
Other interview rules apply, including the following:
- There are no Miranda warnings provided ahead of or during an interview. Whatever the interviewee shares is documented by the inspector.
- Inspectors must take notes, but they can only record audio or video if the employee agrees.
- Employees should review any written statement and sign it only if they agree with what OSHA has captured in its entirety.
Can managers sit in?
No, not during frontline employee interviews. These should be kept private and separate from management.
Management interviews work differently. What a manager says carries legal weight and can put your organization in a difficult position, so your managers are encouraged to have legal counsel present if that helps them feel more comfortable.
Offering a company lawyer to frontline employees is where things get murky. If an attorney who’s representing your employee is paid for by your organization, there's potential for a conflict of interest as the organization’s needs could override the employee’s rights or needs.
Employees do have the right to representation during an interview, usually a union representative. They can also ask for an interpreter as needed.
What questions do inspectors ask?
Expect open-ended questions about how work gets done. Inspectors want to understand what hazards are where and whether the controls in place are working. Common topics include:
- The tasks an employee performs and the hazards to which they're potentially exposed.
- The training they've received and when and how it was provided.
- How programs such as lockout/tagout (LO/TO) or hazard communication (HazCom) work on the floor.
- Whether they've raised safety concerns and how those concerns were addressed.
What’s the impact of an “I don’t know” response?
Managers and program owners should expect more in-depth questions tied to the records the inspector is there to review, and here, an “I don’t know” carries more weight. If you are the HazCom program administrator and cannot answer a fundamental question about how the program is designed, who it covers, or what information is shared with them, there’s the potential for a finding. A frontline employee unsure about the same program is in a very different position.
Five mistakes that can make an OSHA interview harder
Interviews go more smoothly for everyone when you steer clear of these missteps:
- Putting company representatives in frontline interviews. It undermines the private, separate interview process that OSHA expects.
- Letting employees guess. If they don't know, they should say so rather than speculate. Where appropriate, they can point the inspector to someone who has the information.
- Leaving employees unsure of their rights. People should know they don't have to agree to a recording or sign a statement with which they disagree.
- Losing track of what was shared. If OSHA takes notes during your interview, you take notes as well and log every document you hand over to them. That record may support an appeal if a citation is received.
- Treating an honest answer as disloyalty. Under Section 11(c) of the OSH Act, it's illegal to retaliate against employees for speaking with an inspector. That protection applies whether they knowingly or unknowingly reveal information later determined by OSHA to be a violation.
Prepare your people before OSHA knocks
Mock inspections build awareness and confidence among your managers and frontline employees. Build interview practice into them so employees get used to open-ended questions before a real inspection. Interview skills training also helps beyond OSHA, carrying your teams through management system and compliance audits.
Knowing what to expect and having practiced how to respond helps your organization survive the inspection and demonstrate its ongoing commitment to employee safety and health.
