Reliable mail handing procedures might save you from an untimely notice of contest. Every employer should create dependable mail routing procedures that ensure mail promptly reaches the appropriate decision-maker. Even with a steady track-record of timely-filed contests, you will want evidence that your internal mail procedures are such that employees losing the mail is a one-off unforeseeable error.

OSHA is now using a new Weighting System to gauge enforcement activity that will incentivize Area Offices to conduct more intensive investigations. Before, an Area Office might have been reluctant to undertake intensive, complex inspections because it would not have received enough “credit” within the agency and have been penalized for being ineffective. Now, Area Offices are rewarded for more complex inspections, and employers may well see an uptick in multi-CHSO, multi-day inspections.