An industry contact recently asked me what five issues I expected OSHA would be focusing its enforcement efforts on for the balance of this year. Here was my response:
1. Emergency Exits & Exit Routes – A couple of months ago, OSHA issued an enforcement memorandum directing inspectors to scrutinize whether employers were providing and maintaining adequate means of emergency exit; i.e., unlocked, unobstructed, and clearly marked exit doors and exit routes in compliance with 29 C.F.R. 1910.36. We just wrote a blog post about this Exit initiative on the OSHA Law Update blog. The directive applies to all industries and all workplaces, so I expect that will be one item OSHA looks at carefully in all inspections for at least the rest of the calendar year.
