CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Nevada's workplace safety program is
marred by poorly trained investigators and lackadaisical procedures
and is in "urgent" need of oversight corrections, according to a
federal report released Tuesday.

The 80-page report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor's
Occupational Safety and Health Administration identified "a number
of systemic issues that caused great concern" within the state
OSHA program.

Among them are inspectors with "limited knowledge" of
construction safety hazards, lack of follow-up investigations and
failure to issue citations for willful and repeat workplace safety
violations.

Donald Jayne, Nevada Division of Industrial Relations
administrator, and Steve Coffield, state OSHA chief administrative
officer, said they welcomed the findings and would work to improve
the agency's operations.

"We are committed to making the corrections they have pointed
out," Coffield told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Other report findings:
-During the evaluation time period, only one willful violation
was cited by the state agency, and it was later reclassified and
the fine reduced from $70,000 to $15,000. State investigators said
they are "discouraged" from pursing willful violations by
management and legal counsel.

In a written response included with the report, state officials
denied discouraging severe citations, but acknowledged an
"appropriate level of proof" is necessary to sustain them through
legal reviews.
-Two inspectors conducted fatality investigations without having
taken accident investigation training.
-The Nevada Legislature and state agency put too much emphasis
on the number of inspections to gauge effectiveness. Consequently,
each inspector conducts 95-115 inspections a year, "far too many
per investigator to do a thorough job."
-Some longtime employees have not taken some of the basic
courses that investigators should take.
-For planned, or programmed, inspections, Nevada's average of
serious safety violations was 26 percent, compared with 79 percent
for the federal OSHA.

The federal review was launched after 25 construction workers in
Nevada, many on high-rise projects along the Las Vegas Strip,
including six at one site alone, were killed from January 2008
through June 2009.

"The comprehensive evaluation of the Nevada OSHA plan points to
an urgent need for corrections in oversight and changes in all
phases of its workplace safety and health program," the report
said.

This summer, OSHA monitors evaluated Nevada's investigations
into the Las Vegas construction deaths, as well all state OSHA
inspections during the same period. State officials cooperated in
the evaluation.

Regarding the deaths, the federal report said families of
deceased workers were not notified of the death investigations or
given an opportunity to speak with inspectors, "though family
members may provide information pertinent to a case and Nevada OSHA investigators demonstrated limited knowledge of construction safety hazards."

Jordan Barab, acting assistant OSHA secretary in Washington,
D.C., said the agency plans to strengthen oversight, monitoring and
evaluation of all state programs in light of the deficiencies
discovered by the Nevada review.