The nationwide campaign is voluntary. It does not create a new OSHA rule, inspection requirement, certification program or automatic compliance status. OSHA presents the week as an opportunity to recognize workplace safety and health programs and provides activities, templates and planning materials employers can use during the campaign or later.

For managers, the practical value is less about displaying a campaign badge and more about using the week as a short check of whether emergency procedures work in practice.

Start with the emergency action plan

Federal OSHA’s emergency-action-plan standard, 29 C.F.R. § 1910.38, does not automatically cover every U.S. workplace. It applies when another OSHA standard requires an emergency action plan.

Where the standard applies, the plan generally must be written, kept at the workplace and available for employees to review. Employers with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan orally instead.

The plan must address several basic questions: How do employees report a fire or other emergency? Which evacuation routes and exits should they use? What procedures apply to employees who must remain temporarily to operate critical equipment? How will the employer account for workers after evacuation? Who has rescue or medical responsibilities? Who can employees contact for more information?

A short review should check whether those answers still match the workplace. Changes in floor plans, staffing, equipment, shift schedules, entrances, contractors or work processes can make an old plan unreliable.

Confirm responsibilities and training

For employers covered by § 1910.38, OSHA requires designated employees to be trained to assist with a safe and orderly evacuation. Managers should verify that those assignments are current and that the designated employees understand their roles.

The regulation requires employers to review the plan with each covered employee when the plan is developed or the employee is initially assigned to a covered job, when the employee’s responsibilities change, and when the plan changes. A review is more useful when it tests understanding rather than simply distributing a document.

Ask employees where they would go, whom they would contact and how supervisors would know they reached the assembly point. Include contractors and temporary workers in the discussion when they may be present during an emergency. Specialized workplaces may face additional requirements involving alarms, hazardous materials, health care operations, construction or other activities.

Use worker feedback to find weak points

OSHA’s recommended-practices framework emphasizes management leadership, worker participation, hazard identification and control, education and training, and periodic evaluation. That makes worker feedback central to a useful Safe & Sound Week review.

Managers can ask workers and contractors whether alarms are heard in all areas, whether exits are accessible, whether reporting systems are easy to use and whether anyone hesitates to report hazards or near misses. The goal is to identify problems before an injury or emergency exposes them.

OSHA’s worker-participation guidance also encourages reporting and feedback systems that employees can use without fear of retaliation, followed by management action so workers know what happened to their concerns.

Document what changes next

End the review with a simple action list. Record each hazard or weakness, assign an owner, set a deadline and identify how completion will be verified. If the emergency action plan changes, communicate the change to affected employees and review responsibilities again.

Employers that cannot complete a review during the August 10–16 campaign can schedule one for a later week. OSHA’s materials are planning tools, not substitutes for compliance with applicable federal or state-plan requirements. A participation certificate, badge or campaign activity may show that an employer took part, but it does not demonstrate that the workplace meets every safety obligation.

Sources

• OSHA: Safe & Sound Week 2026

The figure appears in the department’s 2025 accomplishments report and represents investigations launched by the agency—not findings that the companies violated the law. The development matters to employers, recruiters, H-1B workers and U.S. job applicants because federal agencies are increasingly comparing visa filings, workplace records, recruiting practices and actual job duties.

What changed

Project Firewall launched on September 19, 2025. Bloomberg Law reported on April 7, 2026, that a Labor Department official described a 48% increase in the agency’s H-1B investigative caseload since the initiative began.

Bloomberg Law also reported that immigration attorneys representing employers have seen more site visits and broader, more data-driven information requests. The attorneys said inquiries that begin with one worker can expand to payroll and immigration records involving other employees. Those accounts describe reported enforcement activity and compliance concerns, not a new rule making ordinary H-1B hiring unlawful.

The H-1B program remains available to employers that meet its requirements. Project Firewall is an enforcement initiative, not a new H-1B statute.

What DOL is examining

Labor Department materials identify priorities that include possible failures to recruit U.S. workers in good faith, preference for temporary visa holders, retaliation against workers who raise concerns, and inaccurate descriptions of job duties, requirements or working conditions.

The department’s H-1B labor-condition framework also covers wage and workplace obligations. During an investigation, an employer may need to reconcile labor-condition applications, H-1B petitions, public-access files, payroll records, recruitment documentation, job descriptions, work locations and the duties workers actually perform.

Bloomberg Law reported that officials have asked detailed questions about qualifications, job requirements and workplace duties, with answers compared against information in earlier filings. A mismatch can prompt additional questions, but it does not automatically establish a violation or guarantee a penalty.

Potential consequences

Depending on the facts and the applicable proceedings, DOL enforcement may involve back wages, civil penalties and possible debarment from the H-1B program for at least one year. These are potential remedies, not the outcome of every investigation.

Employers should distinguish DOL’s wage-and-hour and H-1B compliance work from the Justice Department’s separate enforcement of citizenship-status discrimination rules. The two areas can overlap in practice when recruiting language suggests that a position is reserved for H-1B workers.

Why job advertisements matter

On July 7, 2026, the Justice Department’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section finalized a settlement agreement with Creative Team, LLC, a Texas-based consulting company. DOJ said the agreement resolved its determination that the company engaged in citizenship-status discrimination in hiring and recruitment after posting a job advertisement restricting positions to H-1B visa holders without legal justification.

The agreement required Creative Team to pay $4,730 in civil penalties, train employees and stop using employment-advertisement restrictions that unlawfully exclude protected workers. The case illustrates a separate compliance risk under the Immigration and Nationality Act: job advertisements that limit hiring to H-1B workers without a documented legal basis can draw DOJ scrutiny.

A practical compliance check

• Compare current job descriptions and actual duties with H-1B petitions and labor-condition applications.
• Keep public-access files, payroll records, wage documentation and recruitment records complete and consistent.
• Review job advertisements and recruiter instructions for language limiting hiring to H-1B workers without a documented legal justification.
• Give managers a clear process for responding to agency inquiries, and avoid casual answers that conflict with filed records.
• Coordinate HR, recruiting, managers and immigration counsel before changing job duties, work locations or wage arrangements.

Employers should watch for additional DOL investigations, DOJ settlements, interagency information-sharing and any future H-1B wage changes. An investigation or settlement involving an employer does not, by itself, establish wrongdoing by every H-1B worker or invalidate every visa petition.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Labor: 2025 accomplishments
• Bloomberg Law: Employers See Spike in Labor Department Immigration Enforcement
• U.S. Department of Justice: Creative Team settlement