The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a final rule that permits employees to authorize a third party—including a labor union representative—to represent them during an OSHA inspection if the OSHA compliance officer believes that the third party’s presence is reasonably necessary for an effective and thorough physical workplace safety inspection.
The new rule, which will take effect May 31, 2024, is similar to the proposed rule that OSHA published August 30, 2023. However, OSHA made one important clarification in response to public comments—it changed the term “participation” in the proposed rule to “accompaniment” in the final rule to describe the third party’s role during the inspection.
OSHA also published FAQs that explain the new walkaround representative designation process.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, can read more here.