• Employers must conduct regular inspections of their aisles and walkways.

Inspections must be conducted regularly and as necessary. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) uses a performance-based approach instead of mandating inspection frequency. This allows employers some flexibility to establish a schedule of how often inspections need to be done given circumstances and variables in the workplace.

The term “regularly” means that an employer has some type of schedule, formal or informal, for inspecting the aisles and walkways that is adequate to identify hazards. Once an employer makes this determination, OSHA expects the inspections to be conducted according to that frequency.

Subpart D also requires employers to conduct inspections “as necessary.” This means that they must be done when particular workplace conditions, circumstances, or events occur that warrant an additional check of the aisles or walkways to ensure that they are safe for employees use.

Additionally, OSHA requires that if a deficiency is found that repairs must be made before employees are allowed to use the aisle or walkway.

Although not required by OSHA, many employers find checklists helpful to ensure that critical compliance requirements and other items are not overlooked.