OSHA at the Job Site: What to Do When an Inspector Arrives

“OSHA just pulled up. What do I do?” Stay calm, send for whoever runs the site, and know the steps, because a federal inspection follows a written procedure: the regulation at 29 CFR 1903.7 and OSHA’s own Field Operations Manual (FOM), which tells its compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) how to run one. This article walks through that procedure from the truck pulling up to the last day to contest a citation, and the penalty reductions a small employer can earn along the way.

The first five minutes: credentials and your representative

The CSHO must present credentials to the owner, operator or agent in charge and explain the nature and purpose of the inspection (1903.7(a)). Look at them and write down the name. The FOM says the inspection “shall not be delayed unreasonably” to wait for the employer’s representative, and if that person is coming from off-site, the wait should not exceed one hour (chapter 3, “Presenting Credentials”). Decide now who that person is on every job, usually you or your lead, and make sure the crew knows to call them.

Ask why they are there. In the opening conference the CSHO is to inform the employers present of the purpose of the inspection and provide a copy of the complaint if there is one (chapter 3, “Opening Conference”). Knowing whether a complaint brought them helps you follow what they look at.

Consent or a warrant

The FOM states that an employer has a right to require the CSHO to get an inspection warrant before entering, unless a recognized exception applies, and it lists consent, third-party consent, plain view, open field, an open construction site and exigent circumstances among the exceptions (chapter 3, “Refusal to Permit Inspection and Interference”). If entry is refused, the CSHO leaves and reports the refusal to the Area Director. Note that the list of exceptions includes an open construction site. Whether to insist on one is a decision to make with a lawyer before the day comes, not in the driveway.

Several companies on one site

When a general contractor and subcontractors share a site, the CSHO holds the closing conference with the general contractor and the appropriate subcontractors, together or separately (chapter 3, “Construction Inspections”), and on a multi-employer worksite more than one employer can be cited for the same hazard. OSHA’s Multi-Employer Citation Policy (CPL 02-00-124) sorts employers into four roles: the creating employer that caused the hazard, the exposing employer whose own workers are exposed to it, the correcting employer responsible for fixing it, and the controlling employer with general supervisory authority over the site.

If you are a sub and another trade created the hazard, the policy says an exposing employer that lacks authority to correct it is citable if it fails to do each of three things: ask the creating or controlling employer to correct it, tell its employees about it, and take reasonable alternative protective measures. In extreme circumstances, such as imminent danger, it must remove its employees from the job. Write down when you asked, and whom.

The walkaround

• Go along. Walkaround representatives generally include those designated by the employer and by the employees (chapter 3, “Walkaround Representatives”). Stay with the CSHO and take your own notes of what was looked at and said.
• Photos, video and samples. CSHOs may take environmental samples and photographs (1903.7(b)), and the FOM says they take photos or video whenever they see a need (chapter 3, “Photographs and Video Recordings”). Photograph the same things yourself, from the same spots.
• Private interviews. CSHOs may question any employee privately during regular working hours (1903.7(b); FOM chapter 3, “Interviews of Non-Managerial Employees”). Do not coach anyone or stand in on those conversations, and never punish anyone for talking: Section 11(c) of the OSH Act prohibits retaliation against an employee who exercises a right under the law.
• Your rules apply to them. CSHOs must follow your safety rules and wear the protective equipment the site requires (1903.7(c)), and inspections are to be conducted so as to preclude unreasonable disruption of your operations (1903.7(d)).
• Trade secrets. Say so if something is one; CSHOs must preserve the confidentiality of trade secrets (chapter 3, “Trade Secrets”).

Fix what you can, on the spot. OSHA’s Quick-Fix reduction takes 15 percent off the penalty for an other-than-serious, low-gravity serious or moderate-gravity serious violation that is corrected quickly (FOM chapter 6). For a hazard that can be abated immediately, such as by adjusting a machine guard, the fix must be completed when the CSHO identifies it or shortly afterward during the walkaround, and the CSHO must see it done. It must be permanent and substantial, not temporary or cosmetic. Quick-Fix does not apply to high-gravity serious, willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations, to violations related to a fatality or a serious injury, or to blatant violations that are easily corrected. If something can be put right properly on the spot, put it right while the CSHO is there.

The closing conference

At the end, the CSHO confers with you and informally advises you of any apparent violations (1903.7(e)), discussing them and noting your comments (FOM chapter 3, “Closing Conference”). OSHA’s booklet for employers says that for each apparent violation the CSHO discusses its nature, the possible ways to correct it, the possible abatement dates and any penalties the area director may issue. Ask about each item. After the inspection the CSHO reports to the area director, who decides whether to issue a citation.

When the citation arrives: the 15 working days

1. Post it. Post the citation, or a copy, at or near the place of each violation for three working days or until the violation is corrected, whichever is longer, even if you contest it. Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays do not count.
2. Consider an informal conference. You may ask for one with the area director to understand the items, discuss abatement dates and penalties, and settle. It must happen within the 15-working-day period and does not extend it.
3. Contest in writing, or it becomes final. To contest the citation, the penalty or the abatement date, file a written Notice of Intent to Contest with the area office within 15 working days of receiving the citation. Disagreeing on the phone or at the informal conference is not a contest. If you do not contest, the citation becomes a final order not subject to review by any court or agency.
4. Pay and certify. Uncontested penalties are due within 15 working days. Tell the area director in writing, signed by management, that each item was corrected by its date; for serious, willful, repeated or failure-to-abate items, the proof must be more detailed.
5. Need more time? After the contest period has passed, a Petition for Modification of Abatement can ask for more time to fix an item. File it in writing no later than one working day after the abatement date, and post it for 10 working days.

All five steps come from OSHA’s booklet Employer Rights and Responsibilities Following a Federal OSHA Inspection (OSHA 3000, 2026 revision). A contested case goes to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent agency outside the Department of Labor.

The penalty, and the reductions for small employers

OSHA’s penalty page lists maximums, effective January 15, 2026, of $16,550 per serious or other-than-serious violation and $165,514 per willful or repeated violation. Those are ceilings. The FOM then adjusts each item’s gravity-based penalty, applying the reductions one after another, not added together:

• Size: 70 percent for 1 to 25 employees, 30 percent for 26 to 100, 10 percent for 101 to 250, counting the most employees you had at any one time in the previous 12 months, at all your workplaces nationwide. OSHA widened the 70 percent band from 10 employees to 25 on July 14, 2025.
• Good faith: normally 25 percent with a written safety and health management system covering leadership and worker participation, hazard identification, hazard prevention and control, training, and program evaluation; 15 percent for a documented, effective system with only incidental deficiencies; none for high-gravity serious, willful, repeated or failure-to-abate items, or if you failed to report a fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye.
• History: 20 percent if you have never been inspected by federal OSHA or a State Plan, or if you were inspected in the previous five years and found in compliance or cited only for other-than-serious violations.
• Quick-Fix: 15 percent, as above.

Here is the arithmetic on an example item, not a prediction of any real penalty. Say a moderate-gravity serious item for a six-person crew starts at $10,000. Size takes 70 percent, leaving $3,000. A written safety program takes 25 percent of that, leaving $2,250. A clean five-year history takes 20 percent, leaving $1,800. A fix during the walkaround takes 15 percent, leaving $1,530. The written program and the on-the-spot fix are the two parts you control on the day.

State plans and getting ready

Federal OSHA is not the inspector everywhere. OSHA lists 22 State Plans that cover private-sector workers, which must be at least as effective as federal OSHA; in those states, check the state program’s own procedures and deadlines.

To be ready before anyone pulls up: name a site representative on every job; keep a written safety program, which is also what earns the good-faith reduction; and look at OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program, which OSHA’s booklet describes as no-cost, confidential and separate from enforcement, with no penalties or citations. The rule OSHA cites most is covered in Fall Protection: OSHA’s Most-Cited Rule, and the injury logs and reports an inspector may ask to see are in OSHA Recordkeeping and Injury Reporting for Small Crews. If you believe OSHA treated your small business unfairly, the same booklet points to the SBA’s National Ombudsman, and notes that a complaint there does not change what a citation requires of you.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.