Free Safety Audits: OSHA’s On-site Consultation Program
March 21, 2025 There are many benefits to safety auditing your greenhouse business, from keeping your workers safe to decreasing losses associated with workplace injuries. To help business owners stay safety compliant, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offers no-cost, confidential safety audits to small and medium-sized businesses in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories.
Frank Giglia, CEA consultant and general manager of agriculture nets supplier Signature Supply, Inc., in Lakeland, Fla., has used his local consultation program for 25 years.
“I get my inspection through the University of South Florida (USF),” Giglia says. (OSHA partners with at least one university in every state.) “Instead of charging you $10,000 for a violation, they just tell you what you did wrong and how to fix it.”
OSHA reports that its consultation program provides more than $1 billion to the national economy, thanks to the reduced number of claims, avoided workers’ compensation costs, and the benefits to workers who have avoided injuries. “The safer you are, the cheaper you operate,” Giglia says.
Here’s the breakdown:
| Workers covered under OSHA | 1,172,067 |
| Estimated injuries per year | 35,162 |
| Estimated injuries prevented by program visits | 8,791 |
| Value of avoided injury per injury | $93,549 |
| Workers’ compensation cost per injury | $35,603 |
| Benefits to workers by reducing hospital visits and lost income | $822,342,718 |
| Benefits to workers’ compensation systems from reduced claims | $312,968,261 |
| Benefits to employer from avoided indirect costs | $344,265,087 |
| Total | $1,479,567,065 |
If you’re interested in getting a no-cost safety audit for your greenhouse business, OSHA provides a list of locations you can go to in every state. Find out how you can take advantage of your local consultation program by going here: https://www.osha.gov/consultation/directory-text