According to the agency, up to 19,000 private sector employers of all sizes and industries nationwide will be surveyed about their workplace safety and health management practices. Participation in the survey is voluntary, and the results will be anonymous and cannot be used for enforcement.
The Baseline Survey of Safety and Health Practices will include questions focusing on whether respondents already have a safety management system; whether they perform annual inspections; who manages safety at their establishments; what kinds of hazards they encounter at their facilities; and more.
OSHA published a notice of its intent to conduct the survey in the Aug. 12, 2010 Federal Register. Following a 60-day comment period, OSHA published a second Federal Register notice for comments on Nov. 3, 2010, and received clearance from the Office of Management and Budget to conduct the survey. A pre-test with a sample of employers was conducted in April 2011.
To learn more, visit http://www.osha.gov/national-survey/national-survey-announcementbaseline-survey.html. Only employers who receive a paper copy of the survey from OSHA’s contractor, Eastern Research Group (ERG), will be able to complete the online version. The data collection phase is expected to be completed by August, when ERG will provide the anonymous results to OSHA.