Inspection

Overview

When it comes to safety, inspections are your first line of defense against an unsafe workplace. There are actually three types of workplace inspections: inspections that Oregon OSHA compliance officers do, inspections that Oregon OSHA consultants do, and inspections that you and your employees do.

In the long run, the inspections that you and your employees do are the most important. All workplaces – including equipment and work processes – must be inspected by a qualified person as often as necessary to keep the employees safe. Quarterly inspections by employees trained in hazard recognition are a good way to get the job done.

If your business has a safety committee, the committee must establish procedures for conducting workplace safety and health inspections. People trained in hazard identification must conduct the inspections at least quarterly – and as often as necessary at mobile locations.

All available content

Publications

Bulletins and Penalty Summaries
- Annual Adjustments to Penalties Bulletin 1-2024
  Oregon OSHA is required to calculate the annual adjustment based on the West Region CPI-U. Annual adjustments are based on the percent change between the West Region CPI-U in October of the preceding year and October of the current year. The civil penalties in this bulletin apply to citations assessed under ORS 654.086 for inspections opened between January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024.
  English 11/28/2023
- Annual Adjustments to Penalties Bulletin 1-2025
  Annual adjustments are based on the percent change between the West Region CPI-U in October of the preceding year and October of the current year. The civil penalties in this bulletin apply to citations assessed under ORS 654.086 for inspections opened between January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025.
  English 11/26/2024
- Resumen de ajustes de infracciones y sanciones, 2024
  Violations and penalties adjustments summary, 2024
  Oregon OSHA aprobó cambios a las normas en respuesta al proyecto de ley 592 del Senado, con vigencia a partir del 1 de enero de 2024. Esta resume los cambios.
  Spanish 12/15/2023
- Resumen de ajustes de infracciones y sanciones, 2025
  Violations and penalties adjustments summary, 2025
  Tablas que muestran tipos de infracciones y situaciones consideradas al ajustar una sanción base.
  Spanish 11/26/2024
- Violations and penalties adjustments summary, 2024
  Tables showing types of violations and situations considered in adjusting a base penalty.
  English 11/28/2023
- Violations and penalties adjustments summary, 2025
  Tables showing types of violations and situations considered in adjusting a base penalty.
  English 11/26/2024
- Violations and Penalties Summary - 2023 and Prior
  Tables showing types of violations and situations considered in adjusting a base penalty.
  English 07/01/2022
Checklists
- Accident and incident record
  Checklist for safety management.
  English
- Environmental controls
  Checklist for environmental controls.
  English
- Work environment: general
  Checklist for work environment - general.
  English
Fact sheets
- Comprensión de la “inspección programada con causa justificada” de Oregon OSHA
  Understanding Oregon OSHA’s "programmed inspection for cause"
  Describe las condiciones que desencadenan una inspección programada con causa justificada, a partir de enero de 2024.
  Spanish 01/29/2024
- Entender las normas de Oregon OSHA que afectan las multas civiles
  Understanding Oregon OSHA’s civil penalties rules
  Explains civil penalty annual changes and whether adjustments are available for different types of violations.
  Spanish 01/03/2025
- Understanding Oregon OSHA’s "programmed inspection for cause"
  Outlines the conditions that trigger a programmed inspection for cause, effective January 2024.
  English 01/22/2024
- Understanding Oregon OSHA’s rules affecting civil penalties
  Explains civil penalty annual changes and whether adjustments are available for different types of violations.
  English 12/13/2024
References
- Rules with requirements
  We get many calls and emails from employers asking the same question. It begins: “Which of your rules have requirements for…” You can finish the sentence with words like “recordkeeping,” “employee training,” and “written documents.” To answer those questions, we’ve organized these rules requirements into a filterable, sortable, searchable table.
  English 05/10/2019

Education and training

Resources
- Public Education Workshop Schedule January-June
  Schedule for our workshop classes from January through June. Attending an Oregon OSHA class helps you gain important knowledge and skills.
  English 02/05/2025
Workshop
- Inspections: What to Expect from Oregon OSHA
  Instructor Guide English 07/01/2012
- Inspections: What to Expect from Oregon OSHA
  Workbook English 07/01/2012

Rules and rule-related

Adopted Rules
- Adopted Division 1 Civil Penalty & Work Refusal Changes from Senate Bills 592 and 907
  Administrative Order 03-2023 Rule text
Final Rules
- Division 1, 437-001-0001 through 437-001-0050, General Information
  Administrative Order 3-2023
- Division 1, 437-001-0053 through 437-001-0099, Inspections
  Administrative Order 3-2023
- Division 1, 437-001-0135 through 437-001-0203, Violations and Penalties
  Administrative Order 3-2023
- Division 1, 437-001-0205 through 437-001-0265 (excluding 437-001-0255), Citations and Corrections
  Administrative Order 3-2023
- Division 1, 437-001-0255 through 437-001-0270, Requesting an Appeal and an Informal Conference
  Administrative Order 3-2023
- Division 1, 437-001-1065, Assessment of Civil Penalties
  Administrative Order 3-2023
- Division 3, Subdivision A, General
  3-2019 Word version
Interpretations
- Fall protection exception in Division 3/M, 1926.500(a)(1)
  12/10/2018
Program Directives
- Chromium (VI) Inspection Procedures
  Purpose: The purpose of this Instruction is to provide guidelines and establish uniform inspection and compliance procedures for the occupational exposure standards for hexavalent chromium published in the Federal Register, February 28, 2006, and effective May 30, 2006.
  A-270 08/08/2008
- Focused Inspections In Construction
  Purpose: This directive establishes Oregon OSHA’s policy for conducting focused construction inspections of employers that have been recognized by trade associations within the construction industry for their workplace safety and health programs.
  A-264 03/06/2025
- Guidelines for Scheduling and Conducting Inspections of Agriculture Labor Housing
  Purpose: To establish and implement procedures and guidelines for inspecting agricultural labor housing by Oregon OSHA personnel.
  A-222 05/12/2025
- Inspection and Citation Guidance for Roadway and Highway Work Zones
  Purpose: To provide guidance to compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) on how to conduct safety and health inspections of workplaces involved in construction, maintenance, or utility work activities on or near roadways and highways (hereinafter "work zones") where public or site operation vehicular traffic exposes workers to struck-by hazards.
  A-290 09/15/2021
- Inspection Criteria: Complaint Policies and Procedures
  Purpose: This Program Directive (PD) establishes policies and procedures for handling complaints relating to workplace safety and health conditions.
  A-219 09/22/2009
- Inspection Criteria: Construction and Forest Activities Safety Inspections
  Purpose: This program directive provides guidelines for the safety enforcement staff when conducting programmed inspections of construction and forest activities employers on the safety scheduling lists.
  A-247 08/11/2015
- Inspection Criteria: Inspection Exemption for Agricultural Small Employers
  Purpose: Provide guidance to assist the compliance officer in determining when an agriculture employer meets the inspection exemption requirements of OAR 437-001-0057(12).
  A-214 05/04/2015
- Inspection Criteria: Random Construction Inspections
  Purpose: To provide guidance in determining when a construction site or employer will be subject to a random safety construction inspection from the Random Scheduling List.
  A-248 07/22/2014
- Inspection Criteria: Scheduling Lists for Safety and Health Inspections
  Purpose: This Program Directive explains how the safety and health scheduling lists will be created and the criteria and ranking factors that will be used to identify the places of employment the Director believes to be the most unsafe in the state of Oregon.
  A-244 01/24/2025
- Inspection Criteria: State-Wide Settlement Agreements
  Purpose: This directive provides policy and guidance for administering state-wide settlement agreements.
  A-163 09/20/2018
- Local Emphasis Program (LEP): Field Sanitation
  Purpose: To establish and implement an LEP for field sanitation inspections and to provide guidelines for the inspection of agricultural establishments covered by the Field Sanitation Standard in Division 4, Agriculture.
  A-174 08/11/2011
- Local Emphasis Program (LEP): Pesticides
  Purpose: To establish methods the enforcement staff will use to provide effective, efficient and consistent enforcement inspections in the variety of occupational sites where pesticides are made, used and stored.
  A-235 02/28/2018
- Local Emphasis Program (LEP): Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP)
  Purpose: Oregon OSHA’s policies and procedures for its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), which concentrates limited resources on inspecting employers who demonstrate a resistance or indifference to employee health and/or safety and the Oregon Safe Employment Act (ORS 654) as evidenced by qualifying willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations, or when certain types of citations result from a Programmed Inspection for Cause (PIC).
  A-277 03/31/2025
- Local Emphasis Program (LEP): Struck-by Hazards in the Logging Industry
  Purpose: This directive describes policies and procedures for implementing a Local Emphasis Program (LEP) to reduce the incidence of serious injuries and fatalities in the logging industry resulting from occupational exposure to struck-by hazards.
  A-245 10/12/2016
- National Emphasis Program (NEP): Lead in general industry and construction
  Purpose: This instruction describes policies and procedures for implementing a national emphasis program (NEP) to reduce occupational exposures to lead in accordance with the provisions of the Field Information Reference Manual (FIRM).
  A-273 06/29/2017
- Programmed Inspection for Cause
  This instruction offers guidance to enforcement personnel on "programmed inspections for cause," relating to priority and scheduling of inspections and closing conference.
  A-304 01/19/2024
- Victim's Family Communication: Oregon OSHA Fatality Inspection Procedures
  Purpose: To provide guidance to ensure Oregon OSHA communicates its fatality inspection procedures to the victim’s family and facilitates the exchange of information throughout the entire inspection process.
  A-287 07/10/2024
- Warehousing and Distribution Center Operations
  Policies and procedures when conducting comprehensive safety inspections in warehousing and distribution center operations, parcel delivery/courier services, and certain high injury rate retail establishments.
  A-305 12/29/2023
- Worker Inspection Criteria: Temporary Service Providers and Leasing Companies
  Purpose: To provide guidance to Oregon OSHA staff when working with temporary service providers and worker leasing companies.
  A-246 12/17/2015
Summary of comments and decisions

Video Resources

Borrow from the Resource Center

Watch Online

English
- SB592 Inspections and Penalties
  In 2023, the Oregon State Legislature passed Senate Bill 592 that brought about changes to how Oregon OSHA assesses penalties and introduced a new type of inspection. In this video, we’ll give a brief overview of these legislative and administrative rule changes.
  Language: English Length: 04:40 minutes
Spanish
- SB592 Inspecciones y Sanciones
  SB592 Inspections and Penalties
  En 2023, la Legislatura del Estado de Oregón aprobó el Proyecto de Ley del senado 592 que introdujo cambios en la forma en que Oregon OSHA evalúa las sanciones e introdujo un nuevo tipo de inspección. En este vídeo, daremos una breve descripción de estos cambios legislativos.
  Language: Spanish Length: 4:40 min.