OSHA Complaint Search: What You Can Look Up

Workers or their representatives can file a safety and health complaint online, by phone, by mail, fax, or email, or in person, in any language, and can file anonymously. OSHA does not publish the complaint text or the name of the person who filed it.

When OSHA opens an inspection because of a complaint, that inspection becomes a public record with the company, site address, dates, the inspection type, and any citations and penalties.

On osha.gov, use Establishment Search with the company name, state, and date range, then open each inspection. The inspection type on the record tells you whether it started from a complaint, a referral, an accident, a planned inspection, or something else.

OSHAlert record pages label each inspection with why it was opened, so you can see a company's complaint inspections next to its other inspections without opening them one by one.

In states with their own OSHA-approved State Plan, such as California, Michigan, or Washington, the state agency handles most complaints. Their inspections are searchable in the same Establishment Search.

There is no public search by complaint number. To check on a complaint, contact the OSHA area office or State Plan office that is handling it. OSHA's general number is 1-800-321-6742 (1-800-321-OSHA).

To request copies of records about a case, you can file a Freedom of Information Act request with OSHA.

A safety and health complaint should be filed as soon as possible. OSHA cannot issue citations for hazards that occurred more than six months earlier, and it notes that a signed complaint is more likely to lead to an onsite inspection.

Retaliation is a separate complaint. A whistleblower complaint has a deadline of 30 to 180 days, depending on the law involved.

A complaint inspection means someone at or near the worksite raised a concern. If citations follow, the employer usually has to fix hazards, update written programs, and train workers on a deadline.

Safety consultants and training providers use complaint inspections as a timely reason to reach out. The list below shows recent complaint inspections at companies with citations on record.