The Government Accountability Office said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not protected whistleblowers particularly failing to provide workers with the mandatory training for investigators. -db
OMB Watch
September 28, 2010
In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has again strongly criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for a range of problems and inconsistencies in the agency’s handling of whistleblower protections.
The participation of workers is an important accountability and effectiveness mechanism needed to keep workplaces safe and legal. OSHA is responsible for protecting the substantive and procedural rights of employees who disclose prohibited or illegal practices and then experience retaliation for blowing the whistle on these practices. OSHA administers the whistleblower protection provisions of 19 different federal statutes covering industries and subjects as diverse as transportation, consumer products, environmental quality, and finance.
In a report released Sept. 17, GAO criticized OSHA for several failures to adequately protect workers and to develop agency practices that can lead to better implementation of its responsibilities. The report was requested by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) and by Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). They requested GAO to follow up on its January 2009 report that was critical of OSHA’s whistleblower program to see if there were improvements at the agency.
For more than 20 years, GAO has criticized OSHA management for its neglect of the whistleblower program. OSHA’s internal procedures, lack of resources and training for investigators, and inconsistent outcomes across the agency’s regional offices are persistent problems. The most recent report highlights these same issues.
Specifically, the report concludes that:
A large portion of agency investigators has not completed the two mandatory training programs for investigators established in 2007 and 2008. The report notes that “just over 60 percent has taken or registered for the second mandatory course. Additional training on specific, complex statutes has not been developed because of resource constraints.”
OSHA still has not implemented earlier GAO recommendations to provide investigators with a standard set of equipment (such as portable printers) and resources (such as standard software).
“OSHA lacks sufficient internal controls to ensure that the whistleblower program operates as intended due to several factors, including inconsistent program operations, inadequate tracking of program expenses, and insufficient performance monitoring.”
Regions vary in the way they screen whistleblower complaints and assign personnel and by the level of manager who makes decisions about cases. The national office does not have access to data and case files to adequately monitor the regional offices for compliance with agency procedures.
GAO points out that the problems at OSHA are exacerbated by the increased numbers of whistleblower complaint statutes recently passed while OSHA’s program resources have remained relatively flat. For example, since 2000, six new statutes addressing such broad issues as financial accountability, pipeline safety, and consumer product safety, as well as the new health care bill, all create new enforcement responsibilities for OSHA. The number of investigators has remained in the range of 63-80 (the current high in 2010). OSHA received resources for 25 additional full-time investigators in Fiscal Year 2010, but GAO raises concerns about the distribution of those new investigators among regional offices and whether they will be used strictly for whistleblower activities.
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, Dr. David Michaels, released a statement Sept. 16 addressing GAO’s report, saying
With our available resources, OSHA is working hard to ensure that whistleblowers are protected from retaliation. We are in the process of a top-to-bottom review of OSHA’s whistleblower protection program. This comprehensive review will cover policy, resources, equipment and work processes. The objective is to identify any weaknesses and inefficiencies in the program and improve the way we conduct this very important activity. In addition, we have hired additional personnel in the past year in an effort to more efficiently process cases.
Michaels, who was only confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 3, 2009, noted that OSHA has set a goal that all investigators and their supervisors complete within 18 months the mandatory training programs as an example of actions the agency has begun.
The GAO report criticized the agency’s responses to its recommendations, saying that the agency knows enough to begin implementing internal controls before a thorough review of weaknesses is completed.
A press release from the members who requested the GAO follow-up study noted that in congressional hearings on incidents like the Upper Big Branch mine explosion and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, Congress heard from many employees who feared being fired or who experienced some retaliation when disclosing significant workplace problems. Miller was quoted as saying, “As we have seen all too often, workers pay the tragic price when companies retaliate against workers who raise legitimate safety concerns. Strong and effective whistleblower protections are essential to ensuring a safe workplace since safety regulators can’t be on every site.”
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One Comment
I filed an OSHA complaint against my employer, after I had repeatedly explained most of the safety violations to management. After OSHA performed their inspections and found numerous serious violations and repeat violations I was notified by the manager and told that due to the economy I was no longer needed and laid off, funny but I was the only one laid off from this company. I contacted OSHA to let them know about their possible retaliation for the OSHA complaints. I was assigned an OSHA investigator and after four months and several phone calls back and forth, I was told that this may take from a year and a half to possibly three years to resolve my case. Oh yes, he told me to hang tight and try to tough it out. My advice to other prospective whistleblowers is just to let it go!!! The government is not out to protect the employees this is a regulatory agency with no teeth. Beware!!!
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