OSHA has a very useful tool on their web site. If you click on "Inspection Data" at www.osha.gov you can look up OSHA violations by employer, industry code or citation number (or from semcosh.org you can click our link ‘OSHA Violation Finder’). You can find information about your own employer or industry. More information could be available but, as is, it is a very useful tool and a good use of computer technology.

Until very recently you could use this tool any time of any day.

Now it can only be used between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm in the Eastern Time Zone, Monday through Friday. That means if you work dayshift in Detroit and don’t want to leave cyber-tracks on the company computer, you just can’t use the violations finder. If you live in Hawaii you can use the service between 1 am and 11 am.

Jordan Barab of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board suggests this explanation, "Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao has told the computers that because of DOL’s new overtime regulations, the computers would no longer be receiving overtime pay. So they went on strike. Or were locked out."

Maybe. Or maybe someone figured out that workers were using the service after work and on the weekends to research their employers. Therefore, if the service is only available when workers are working (in most of the country) or sleeping (in Hawaii and Alaska) it won’t be used for that purpose.