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COUNTY COMMENT %u2022 April 2025 9continuedROADWORTHY NEWS: WHO ENFORCES WORKPLACE SAFETY REGULATIONS IN KANSAS COUNTIES?By Darryl Lutz, KAC Local Road EngineerOccasionally you might see a television news report or read an article about a tragic accident where a worker or workers were seriously injured or killed in a workplace accident. Such news reports usually include information on the agency investigating the incident and perhaps even suggesting potential safety violations. Have you ever wondered if your county department is subject to safety regulations and which agency in Kansas investigates accidents or performs workplace inspections? When we think of employee and workplace safety, often the first agency name to come to mind might be the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Did you know, however, in Kansas that State and County agencies are exempt from OSHA oversight and enforcement? Hang on, though, you are not off the hook.In Kansas, all workplaces, public and private, %u201cwhere labor is or is intended to be performed for any purpose %u2026%u201d are subject to inspection and examination of facilities by the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL). The statute that grants this authority to the Secretary of Labor is KSA 44-636. It is a straightforward statute to read and is clear about the authority granted for entering workplaces to make inspections. The statute is even clear on the requirement for a report to be prepared including identification of any adverse findings. The statute, however, does not identify any specific set of regulations or standards to be followed. The reality is that any enforcing agency acting in a responsible and consistent manner is going to follow prevailing %u201cbest practices%u201d and established industry standards, particularly when it comes to life safety and health issues. So, just because you as a public agency might not be subject to oversight of enforcement action by OSHA, you can fully expect that if your county is inspected, the Kansas Department of Labor personnel will be using %u201cbest practices%u201d found in our national standards, including under OSHA, to determine relative conformance to workplace safety standards.I reached out to the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) to learn more about their role for ensuring workplace safety for public agencies in Kansas. One important thing that I learned is that the KDOL is not simply in the mode of doing inspections and citing violations. They are a resource to agencies in that they will perform workplace safety audits upon request and will provide safety training on a very wide range of industry safety topics. They want to be proactive in helping you comply with workplace safety standards and to assure that we all send our employees home safely at the end of their work shift.KDOL has a lot of workplaces to inspect in Kansas. If you can imagine the number of factories, machine shops, industrial process plants, construction companies, construction sites and public agencies in Kansas, they have a lot of ground to cover. Shane