This is a call for a Presidential Executive Order that prohibits requiring OSHA 10/30 Hour Training without allowing alternatives.
Background:
In October 2019, OSHA halted all applications for new OSHA 10/30 online training vendors, creating an oligopoly of grandfathered providers with exclusive access to the annual 1.2 million-student market. This is a clear violation of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). Complaints by Outreach Trainers—who compete by offering in-person training—have resulted in OSHA issuing threats to revoke trainer authorization for seeking redress of grievances. This is a violation of the trainers’ First Amendment rights.
Outreach training program standards for in-person trainers are extremely restrictive and appear to be written to support the oligopoly. For example:
- An in-person trainer must deliver a full 10 or 30 hours of training with no hybridization allowed. However, online training includes zero instructor contact hours.
- The in-person trainer must maintain a student-to-instructor ratio of 40:1 for classroom delivery and 20:1 for virtual. However, online training has a student-to-instructor ratio of 1.2 million to zero.
- In-person virtual classes cannot be conducted on a cellular device, but there are no device restrictions for online training.
- An online OSHA 10 course can cost as little as $59. In contrast, in-person instructors must charge significantly more to stay afloat. It’s difficult to attract students when the employer must remove the employee from production and pay up to five times the cost of an online course.
Although these courses are not officially required by OSHA, many states, employers, and contract authorities mandate them. Workers also take pride in receiving their OSHA DOL Card as a marker of professional development.
Certain industries—like tree care, which is on the front lines of wildfire mitigation—could benefit greatly from customized hybrid training. The right hybrid approach could deliver training that is at least as effective as the current online training, with improvements in quality, convenience, accessibility, and cost. However, OSHA will not accept any proposals and continues to block new entrants from the self-paced online market. At the same time, current in-person trainer standards further limit an instructor’s ability to meet the needs of their industry, employers, and students.
The best solution—without gutting the valuable OSHA Outreach Training Program—is to prohibit any entity (company, organization, state, or contract authority) from requiring safety training that can only be satisfied with an OSHA DOL Card. The OSHA 10/30 DOL Card and its associated training would then become optional, not a mandatory gatekeeper. Employers could satisfy safety training requirements internally or purchase any other approved alternative from a non-OSHA-authorized provider.
