Washington – The Chemical Safety Board on March 7 announced a policy that encourages employee participation in investigations.

The policy, approved unanimously by CSB on Feb. 27, originated from a roundtable with plant incident victims, family members of victims and worker representatives.

Under the policy, CSB will establish contact with employee representatives at the beginning of an investigation and reach out to contract workers. That includes allowing employee representatives to accompany CSB investigators on facility inspections, as well as review and comment on evidence, testing and the factual accuracy of CSB findings prior to public release. CSB also promised to watch out for retaliation against participating employees.

The agency plans to develop a brochure for victims' families and a webpage summarizing the new policy.