Tinkering, or real changes to OSHA VPP?

http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/tinkering-or-real-changes-to-osha-vpp/

August 12, 2009 in Confined Space @ TPH, Occupational Health & Safety, Safety | by Celeste Monforton

In May, the Government Accountability Office issued a critical report assessing OSHA’s program for monitoring its designated Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) sites. There are about 2,200 of these VPP site across the country which have met the written program and on-site evaluation criteria. A VPP designation exempts the worksite from programmed OSHA inspections, and if an inspection is conducted—because of a complaint, referral or fatality/catastrophe—-the employer is not cited for violations if they are promptly corrected. This recent GAO report was peppered with phrases like “not sufficient,” “lack of policy,” does not have controls,” and “not met key requirements.” Most troubling to me, however, was the GAO conclusion:

“OSHA has not developed goals or measures to assess the performance of the VPP, and the agency’s efforts to evaluate the program’s effectiveness have been inadequate.”

GAO also reminded us that they had already recommended in 2004 that these OSHA compliance assistance programs be evaluated for cost-effectiveness, and to do so BEFORE they are further expanded. Well, that idea was ignored by Mr. Foulke and company. The number of OSHA VPP sites doubled in the time since that GAO recommendation was made.

Here we are, 5 years later, and still no data on whether VPP is a good use of OSHA’s scarce resources. My back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that the resource demands of VPP are significant: 1,580+ existing sites (under federal OSHA responsibility), and another 87 new sites added (Jan-June ‘09), is a lot of annual reporting, on-site assistance, and schedule evaluations (every 1, 2, 3 or 5 years, depending on site’s status.) It makes me wonder how OSHA can really justify the diversion of resources. Remember, this is the agency known infamously for its underfunding—-as the Health and Safety Department of the AFL-CIO reminds us, it would take OSHA 133 years to inspect each workplace under its jurisdiction just once.

The other major conclusion of GAO’s assessement of OSHA’s management of VPP was lack of written documentation in case files and insufficient national office oversight to ensure consistency throughout the country. In May, acting asst. secretary Jordan Barab responded to the GAO report by saying OSHA would address the problems identified by GAO and would “conduct a comprehensive evaluation of its VPP and Alliance Program.” When I heard this, it told me to get ready for some short-term fixes, but also a longer-term effort.

FULL story at link.