U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General Audit – OSHA Need To Improve Its Handling of Whistleblower Complaints During the Pandemic. August 14, 2020: “We found the pandemic has significantly increased the number of whistleblower complaints OSHA has been receiving. OSHA was challenged to complete investigations in a timely manner before the pandemic, and the potential exists for even greater delays now. While the pandemic has increased significantly the number of whistleblower complaints OSHA has received, the Whistleblower Program’s full time employment has decreased. According to investigators we interviewed, no more than 20 open investigations at once would be the optimal caseload per investigator. Depending on the region, investigators reported the number of open investigations ranged from 15 to 40 in 2019, but 19 to 45 in 2020. Consequently, the potential exists for even greater delays in closing investigations. Amid this challenge, OSHA needs to improve its handling of whistleblower complaints. When OSHA fails to respond in a timely manner, it could leave workers to suffer emotionally and financially, and may also lead to the erosion of key evidence and witnesses.Prior to the pandemic, OSHA began a triage pilot intended to expedite the complaint screening process and also reassigned older complaints from regions with large backlogs to regions with lesser backlogs. However, OSHA had not utilized a similar approach during the pandemic to more evenly distribute whistleblower complaints…”