An Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) is a written workplace safety program that sets out how an employer will identify, correct, communicate and train on hazards to prevent injuries and illnesses.
An Injury and Illness Prevention Program, or IIPP, is a written, workplace-wide safety and health program that describes how an employer will find hazards, fix them, train workers and keep everyone involved in preventing injuries and illnesses. Rather than addressing one hazard at a time, it sets up the management system that ties all of an organization's safety activities together.
The term is most closely associated with California, where every employer has been required to have a written IIPP since 1991 under Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 3203. Cal/OSHA's IIPP requirement is one of the most frequently cited standards in the state. Other states have similar requirements under different names, such as Washington's Accident Prevention Program and Minnesota's A Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction (AWAIR) program.
Federal OSHA does not have a general safety and health program standard. However, its Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs describe a very similar approach, built around management leadership, worker participation, hazard identification and control, and continuous improvement. Many employers outside California use IIPP as a shorthand for this kind of program.
Section 3203 requires a written program with eight elements:
The program must name the person or people with the authority and responsibility to implement it. This should be someone with real authority to direct resources, not a title that exists only on paper.
Employers must have a system for ensuring workers follow safe work practices. This can include recognition for safe behavior, training and retraining, and disciplinary actions applied consistently.
The program must describe how the employer communicates with employees about safety, in a form they can readily understand. Examples include meetings, training, postings, written communications and a system for employees to report hazards without fear of reprisal. Safety committees can satisfy part of this requirement.
Employers must identify and evaluate workplace hazards, including through scheduled periodic inspections. Inspections are required when the program is first set up, when new substances, processes, procedures or equipment introduce new hazards, and whenever the employer learns of a new or previously unrecognized hazard.
The program must include procedures to investigate occupational injuries, illnesses and exposures. See incident investigation.
Unsafe conditions, practices and procedures must be corrected in a timely manner based on their severity. When an imminent hazard exists that cannot be corrected immediately, exposed employees must be removed from the area, except those needed to fix the problem, who must be given the necessary protection.
Training must be provided when the program is established, to new employees, to workers given new assignments, when new hazards are introduced, and when the employer becomes aware of a new hazard. Supervisors must be trained on the hazards their workers may be exposed to.
Employers must document inspections, including the people conducting them, the unsafe conditions found and the actions taken, and keep records of safety training. California allows reduced recordkeeping for some smaller employers and for certain low-hazard industries.
Since July 1, 2024, most California employers must also have a written workplace violence prevention plan under Labor Code Section 6401.9. The plan can be included as a separate section of the IIPP or kept as a standalone document, and it comes with its own training, logging and recordkeeping requirements.
A common problem is an IIPP that exists only as a binder. Inspectors look for evidence that the program is actually being followed, so the most effective programs share a few traits:
A family-owned landscaping company in California with about 40 employees received a Cal/OSHA inspection after a worker was injured by a mower. The company had an IIPP binder downloaded from the internet, but it named a manager who had retired, contained no record of inspections and had never been translated for the largely Spanish-speaking crew. The inspector cited the company for an inadequate IIPP in addition to the equipment violation.
The owner rebuilt the program around how the business actually worked. Crew leaders were named as responsible for daily equipment checks and job-site hazard walks, with simple checklists in English and Spanish. The company held short weekly tailgate meetings, set up a text-message line for hazard reports and logged every finding with a fix date. It also added its heat illness prevention plan and workplace violence prevention plan as sections of the IIPP. After a year, recordable injuries had dropped and the company had a clear record to show at its next inspection.
There is no federal OSHA requirement for a written IIPP, but several states require similar written safety programs, and many employers adopt one voluntarily because it is the foundation of a good safety management system. Check your state's requirements.
Cal/OSHA does not set a fixed review cycle, but the program must stay accurate. Best practice is to review it at least annually and whenever there is a significant incident, a new process or hazard, or a change in responsible people.
The same eight elements apply, but the program can be scaled to the business. California allows employers with fewer than 10 employees to communicate safety information orally in some circumstances and provides limited recordkeeping relief for some small and low-hazard employers.
They are closely related. An IIPP is a legally required written program in some states, while a safety management system, such as one built to ISO 45001, is a broader framework. A well-run IIPP covers many of the same elements.
Part of SafetyIQ's EHS glossary: plain-English definitions of workplace health and safety terms.
> Keep learning
> See it in action
Capture hazards, run inspections, track training and close out corrective actions in one platform built for high-risk, field-heavy work.
Book my free demo
Get a demo built around your sites, your teams, and the way your people work.
EHS, journey, and fatigue management software for field-heavy teams.
.png){kind=logo}
.png)