Public Employment Risk Reduction Program (PERRP)

PERRP helps ensure that Ohio public employees have a safe and healthful workplace. Public employers must provide a workplace free from hazards that are causing or may cause death or serious physical harm.

PERRP adopts and enforces occupational safety and health standards, provides training, outreach, education, and compliance assistance to prevent public employee occupational injuries and illnesses.

PERRP voluntary compliance assistance services explain regulatory requirements and raise awareness of occupational injury and illness risk factors and strategies to reduce risk. Compliance assistance services include risk reduction inspections, industrial hygiene sampling, written program/policy reviews, and training.

To request PERRP compliance assistance services, you can submit a request online. Please have your BWC policy number ready. A safety consultant will contact you within two business days.

PERRP Compliance Safety and Health Officers visit public sector worksites to investigate refusal to work (imminent danger) allegations, fatalities, amputations, hospital admissions, loss of eye, and verification or follow-up visits based on public employee complaints. PERRP also conducts unannounced (focus-four) inspections to ensure compliance.

PERRP focus-four visits are pro-active inspections of public sector worksites where public employees may perform high-risk activities. Those activities include landscaping/tree work, confined space entry and work, roadway work zones, and tasks that require trenching and excavation. Historically, each of these high-risk activities has resulted in a substantial number of public employee fatalities and serious injuries.

Watch this video to learn more about what to expect during a PERRP enforcement investigation or inspection: