The new sheriff in town’ is facing some serious challenges. At the National Safety Council’s annual Congress & Expo held in late October, the acting head of OSHA, Jordan Barab, said, “OSHA is a regulatory and enforcement agency, and will act like one under the Obama administration.”

He said the agency had its budget increased by 10 percent and would be making 200 new hires, 100 of them inspectors, as it “gets back in the standard writing and enforcement business.”

Will it be enough, though? Not long after Barab’s address at NSC, the Government Accountability Office released a report that said OSHA needs to do a better job of making sure employers keep accurate records on worker injuries and illnesses. Perhaps not surprising, the report revealed that inspectors often don’t interview injured workers to verify the records of their employers.

OSHA annually audits the records of a representative sample of about 250 of the approximately 130,000 worksites in the high hazard industries, but it doesn’t always require inspectors to interview workers about injuries and illnesses, which could assist them in evaluating the accuracy of the records.

“Accurate injury and illness records are vital to protect workers’ health and safety,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “They not only enable OSHA to better target its resources and determine the effectiveness of its efforts, accurate numbers are also an important tool that workers and employers can use to identify hazards in their workplaces.”

According to the GAO, many factors affect the accuracy of employers’ injury and illness data, including disincentives that may discourage workers from reporting. For example, workers may not report a work-related injury or illness because they fear job loss or other disciplinary action, or fear jeopardizing rewards based on having low injury and illness rates. In addition, employers may not record because they are afraid of increasing workers’ compensation costs or jeopardizing bids for new work.

In response, Barab says OSHA welcomes the findings and will act quickly to implement the GAO’s recommendations, which include the following:

• Require inspectors to interview workers during records audits;

• Minimize the time between the date injuries and illnesses are recorded by employers and the date they are audited;

• Update the list of high hazard industries used to select worksites for records audits; and • Increase education and training to help employers better understand the recordkeeping requirements.

“Many of the problems identified in the report are quite alarming, and OSHA will be taking strong enforcement action where we find underreporting,” said Secretary Solis.

Still, there is good news. Preliminary data indicates that fatal work injuries in the U.S. totaled 5,071 in 2008, down from a revised total of 5,657 in 2007, according to the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program. OSHA’s not getting all the credit, though. The slowing economy was likely a factor in at least part of the decline.

Also at NSC, OSHA revealed the top 10 most-frequent workplace safety violations for 2009. Possibly as a result of increased enforcement, the number of top 10 OSHA violations this year has increased almost 30 percent over the same period in 2008.

Those violations relate to the following: Scaffolding, Fall Protection, Hazard Communication, Respiratory Protection, Lockout/Tagout, Electrical Wiring, Ladders, Fork Lifts, Electrical Circuitry and Machine Guarding.

On the following pages, you’ll find a comprehensive listing of companies and professionals who are committed to helping you avoid such violations. We’re proud to present our annual Buyers’ Guide, which features more than 384 different products and services provided by hundreds of different companies.

It’s a good place to start as you plan how to keep your facilities and workers injury and illness free, while also keeping the new sheriff in town from knocking on your door.

Thanks and good luck.