Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

When employers are cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for safety and health violations and they do not respond, OSHA cannot verify that the employers corrected the workplace hazards, and local OSHA offices must refer unresolved citations to the national office for enforcement and debt collection—a costly and burdensome process. In fiscal year 2013, OSHA issued citations in about 25,000 cases nationwide, assessing penalties for safety and health violations. Approximately 22 percent of these cases were ultimately referred to the national office for collection, and in 75 percent of the referred cases, the employer had never responded to OSHA after receiving the citation.

Officials at OSHA wanted to know how to help more employers understand and respond to citations, and turned to behavioral science and research experts to determine if targeted “nudges” could help.  The research team collaborated with OSHA to identify the reasons why employers may not respond to the local OSHA office after receiving a citation.  Based on their findings, the research team recommended four changes to OSHA’s standard citation process:

1. Give employers a preview of the citation process during the initial inspection. Include a handout to explain what employers can expect and what their response options are.

2. Develop a clearer and more informative cover letter to include with citations. Include a concise explanation of the employer’s response options and emphasize the importance of prompt action.

3. Provide timely reminders—post cards and follow-up telephone calls—to employers about their response options and critical deadlines.

4. Create Spanish-language versions of all communications materials—something that had never been done consistently on a national scale.

To assess the results of the proposed changes, OSHA and the research team randomly assigned local offices nationwide to either implement the new citation process, beginning in June 2015, or continue using their normal citation processes. The research team collected data from OSHA’s administrative systems in November 2015 and used these data to determine whether, as a consequence of the new citations process, employers had taken any of three actions: (1) signed an informal settlement agreement, (2) paid their penalties, or (3) contested their citation. OSHA viewed any of these steps as positive engagement by the employer with the citation process.

This paper and presentation will share details on the design and findings from this behavioral trial, which concluded that the new citation process led employers to engage with OSHA at a significantly higher rate.  If historical trends hold, this could reduce the number of referrals to enforcement and debt collection by 750 to 1,000 cases annually. Additional results from this study are scheduled for release later this year.