Nevada OSHA confirmed that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration had received a complaint about the state agency and had opened a federal review into whether Nevada OSHA was at least as effective as the federal agency—a requirement for all state OSHA plans under U.S. law.
Nevada OSHA and the state agencies that sit above it have maintained that Nevada OSHA withdrew the citations after the phone call because it determined that the citations had not met legal requirements, and were therefore not valid. Nevada OSHA has also said that the governor’s office regularly receives complaints from businesses in the state and that this instance only stands out “due to the high-profile nature of the business because of its affiliation with Elon Musk.”
It’s unclear at this time who filed the complaint that sparked the federal investigation, formally called a “Complaint About State Plan Administration” or a “CASPA,” nor precisely when it was filed. The Labor Department’s records office confirmed that a CASPA had been filed against Nevada OSHA, though it declined to provide the complaint because it is “part of an enforcement proceeding” and “could interfere with OSHA’s ability to effectively enforce the law.” Separately, a Labor Department spokeswoman said that federal OSHA doesn’t comment on state plan investigations or determinations.
This is not the first time that Nevada OSHA has been under scrutiny from federal OSHA. In 2009, federal OSHA initiated a “special study” into the plan after the Las Vegas Sun reported on the agency’s handling of fatalities during the construction of the CityCenter project on the Las Vegas Strip.
Jordan Barab, who initiated that study into Nevada OSHA during his time leading the federal agency under the Obama Administration, tells Fortune that, because of the high-profile nature of this new inquiry, the top leaders of the federal agency have likely been looped in. “This would definitely have come to the attention of the Assistant Secretary, and probably beyond, given that it involves Elon Musk,” Barab says.
Barab suggested that, should federal OSHA find deficiencies with Nevada’s state plan, the regulator could direct Nevada to make corrections to this specific case or amend the agency’s procedures.
Since the 2009 special study, Barab said that Nevada OSHA had “cleaned up their act” and “appointed some very responsible, competent people to run the program.”
