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The report of a study first to examine the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Federal Agency Targeting (FEDTARG) inspection program. Under the FEDTARG program, OSHA targets Federal worksites that have high lost time case (LTC) counts. The goal of the program is to reduce hazards, injuries and illnesses, and the costs associated with injuries and illnesses in Federal worksites.

This study, conducted by Summit Consulting, LLC under contract to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), aims to better understand the activities, outputs, and outcomes of the FEDTARG program, which was first implemented in fiscal year (FY) 2008. The goal of the study is to provide an understanding of the key features of the program from FY 2008 through FY 2013 and serve as a baseline for future studies.

The analysis examines the types of Federal worksites that OSHA inspected (activities), the violations and standards that OSHA cited during inspections (outputs), and the injury and illness data before and after the inspection (outcomes). Results are organized to highlight similarities and differences across worksite characteristics, such as department, industry, region, union status, worksite size, and fiscal year. OSHA inspected 211 Federal worksites from FY 2008 to FY 2013.

Research Questions

• Activities of the FEDTARG Program
  • Which departments are most commonly inspected through the FEDTARG program?
  • What are the characteristics of FEDTARG inspected worksites?
  • How do worksite characteristics correlate with LTC counts?
• Outputs of the FEDTARG Program
  • How many violations are cited during FEDTARG inspections?
  • Which OSHA standards are most commonly cited? How do worksite characteristics correlate with OSHA standards that are commonly cited?
  • Which violation types (willful, serious, repeated, other-than-serious) are most frequently cited during FEDTARG inspections?
  • How do worksite characteristics correlate with violation types?
• Outcomes of the FEDTARG Program
  • How do post-FEDTARG-inspection LTCs compare to pre-inspection LTCs?

Key Takeaways

• Activities of the FEDTARG Program
  • OSHA inspected Veterans Affairs worksites most frequently (47% of eligible worksites were inspected) and Homeland Security worksites least frequently (25% of eligible worksites).
  • OSHA inspected more than 50% of eligible worksites in Regions 5 (Midwest) and 2 (North Atlantic) and less than 30% of eligible worksites in Regions 6 (South Central), 10 (Northwest), and 8 (North Central).
  • Union representatives were present for 80% of FEDTARG inspections.
• Outputs of the FEDTARG Program
  • OSHA cited worksites with an average of 23 violations per inspection.
  • FEDTARG inspections with union representatives present had, on average, more than twice as many violations as worksites without union representatives.
  • OSHA cited 72% of worksites with at least one serious violation, while less than 1% of worksites were cited for willful violations.
• Outcomes of the FEDTARG Program
  • On average, worksites had eight fewer LTCs in the year after a FEDTARG inspection than they did in the year before the inspection.

Research Gaps

• We also found that worksites where union representatives accompany inspectors are cited for more than twice as many violations as worksites without union accompaniment. This may be because unionized worksites are generally more dangerous or because inspectors are more thorough when they are accompanied by union representatives. The program and future research may wish to explore the benefit of having a worksite representative, union or otherwise, accompany all Federal Agency Targeting (FEDTARG) inspections. This study provides a baseline for the first phase of the FEDTARG program. The randomization element of the targeting, coupled with increasing sample size over time, may allow researchers to estimate comprehensive causal impacts in a future FEDTARG study. (page 27)

Citation

Thompson, S., Hoesly, L., Patten, N. (2015). Summit Consulting. Administrative Data Research and Analysis Project (ADRA): Federal Agency Targeting Inspection (FEDTARG) Program Study - Final Report. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.