Spent a lot of years getting employers out of hot water with osha, some more and less successful. The ball & chain is on the employer, regardless of whether employees cooperate or not. OSHA doesn't cite 'employees'. This is why some contractors dumped their employees going to hiring independent contractors – self-employed – since they’re not subject to osha enforcement. This gets tricky though under osha's 'multi-employer worksite' regulations. People get peeved when they have to comply on a worksite while independents don’t. Conversely, if their unsafe actions cause a serious injury or worse, they’ll want to be insured. A company hiring these people will want to be sure they're amply insured. And their insurer will require they work to safety standards. Also, if independents want to bid on a job, usually large commercial/industrial projects, they’ll be held to being osha compliant as part of an OCIP. Part of a much longer story..
It wasn’t all that uncommon where the losing bidder on a contract would call osha on the outfit that got the job. It was an expensive call for the contractor that got the job sometimes. Talking with an inspector one time about how his inspection came to be, he said he was driving by the site and saw violations. I said no kiddin? Ya was just happening to be driving by…in the back of a huge subdivision, on a cul-de-sac no less? The sub was older, no new construction going on, the job was a remodeling deal on a 20 year old house. Lol . Yep, employee complaints are the #1 reason for osha encounters. Employee gets fired or mad at their boss and they figure they’ll fix their ***. Could write a book.
