Depending on how your business is classified by Oregon OSHA, there could be a one-in-three chance that an OR-OSHA compliance officer will be knocking at your door for a random safety inspection within the next year.
On October 5, 2009, OR-OSHA announced that it has changed the system for determining which employers will be selected for random ("fixed site") safety inspections. Changes are effective immediately.
OR-OSHA's new system ranks industries based on the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) Code, and divides all businesses into 10 different tiers (A through J), based upon the historical incidence of workplace hazards.
Each tier indicates the percentage of Oregon businesses within that tier to be randomly inspected in one year. Thirty percent of Tier-A ranked businesses will be inspected every year, 25 percent of Tier-B businesses, and 20 percent of Tier-C will be inspected. Therefore, it will take just over three years for all Tier-A businesses to be inspected, four years for all of the businesses in Tier B, and five years for all businesses in Tier C.
Industries identified in the top three tiers are:
| NAICS description |
Tier |
Percent selected
per year |
| Other wood product manufacturing |
A |
30 |
| Foundries |
A |
30 |
| Urban transit systems |
A |
30 |
| General freight trucking |
B |
25 |
| Animal slaughtering and processing |
C |
20 |
| Motor vehicle body and trailer mfg. |
C |
20 |
|
What about the lower tiers? This list covers many, but not all businesses outlined in the new system (see text of changes for a specific list):
| Tier D: |
15 percent (certain transportation-related businesses) |
| Tier E: |
12.5 percent (some manufacturing, "direct selling") |
| Tier F: |
10 percent (some agriculture, manufacturing, industrial production, courier services) |
| Tier G: |
7.5 percent (sawmills, some agriculture, food preservation, milling, baking, some manufacturing, utilities, residential and elderly facilities) |
| Tier H: |
5 percent (wholesalers, some manufacturing, some agriculture, department stores, tire stores, waste treatment/collection, entertainment) |
| Tier I: |
2.5 percent (various health care, office work, artistic businesses) |
| Tier J: |
.05 percent (very low-risk businesses not outlined in plan) |
In addition to safety inspections, Oregon OSHA has also implemented a tier-based system for occupational health inspections (industrial hygiene-related processes). There are only two tiers in the health inspection list, with 7.5 percent of Tier A employers selected for inspection and 2.5 percent of Tier B employers selected for inspection.
What to expect from a random compliance inspection
Learn more about OR-OSHA inspections — what would be expected of you and what you can expect from the compliance officer.
View OR-OSHA's announcement/overview of the adopted changes
View the final text of adopted changes