Occupational Safety and Health Variance Regulation

National Defense Variance Application Checklist
Use of this checklist can assist applicants to determine if an application for a national defense
variance is complete and appropriate. Note that only Federal OSHA can grant national defense
variances, so employers must submit applications for national defense variances to Federal OSHA,
even for workplaces located solely in State Plan states.
Does the written application contain the following information?

Applicant Information

o
o
o o
Yes

Name and address of the applicant company.

Yes

Name of, and contact method for, the applicant’s authorized representative
and primary point of contact (if different from authorized representative).

Yes

NA

Address of place or places of employment involved (for multiple sites).

Support Information

o
o
o
o
o

Yes

List of the OSHA standard(s) from which the applicant is requesting
the national defense variance.

Yes

Description of how the proposed variance, limitation, tolerance, or exemption is
necessary and proper to avoid serious impairment to the national defense.

Yes

Description of how the applicant informed its workers of the application and their
right to petition the Assistant Secretary for a hearing;1

Yes

If requesting an Interim Order, a statement of facts and argument explaining why
OSHA should grant such an Order.

Yes

Signed certification that the information contained in the application is accurate and
true to the best of the applicant’s knowledge.

Appropriateness of the Variance Application
A “Yes” response to any of the items below indicates that the application may not be appropriate:

o o
Yes

No

The variance the applicant is requesting is from a “performance” standard, which is
one that does not specify methods or actions that the employer must implement to
meet the requirements of the standard.

o o

No

The variance the applicant is requesting is from a “definition” in a standard.
Definitions are not enforceable portions of a standard since they do not specify means,
methods, or actions the employer must implement for meeting the requirements of
the standard.

Yes

No

There exists an OSHA letter of interpretation that governs acceptability of the
requested alternative.

Yes

No

There is an updated edition of the nationally recognized consensus standard upon
which OSHA based the standard that is the subject of the variance request, and the
updated consensus standard permits the requested alternative (and that protects
employees at least as effectively as the OSHA standard).

Yes

o o
o o
1

Examples of how the applicant may inform its workers include: (1) Giving a copy of the application to their
authorized representative; and (2) posting a statement giving a summary of the application and specifying
where workers may examine a copy of it, at the place(s) where the applicant normally posts notices to workers
(or, instead of a summary, posting the application itself).