Inspector General Auditing OSHA’s Response to Safety Complaints

The U.S. Labor Department’s inspector general is reviewing OSHA’s responsiveness to thousands of workplace safety complaints over the last five years.

The audit’s goal is to determine if the Occupational Safety and Health Administration “ensured complaints and referrals were adequately addressed,” according to an Aug. 24 letter to the agency from Elliott Lewis, the assistant inspector general for audit.

OSHA’s ability to handle complaint and referral cases has been a concern since 2015 when the agency began requiring employers to notify it when a worker was hospitalized or suffered an amputation or eye loss. Referral inspections are often prompted by ...