§ 85.9 Representatives of employers and employees; employee requests.

(a) NIOSH officers shall be in charge of investigations. Where the request for a health hazard evaluation has been made by an authorized representative of employees, a representative of the employer and a representative authorized by his employees who is an employee of the employer shall be given an opportunity to accompany the NIOSH officer during the initial physical inspection of any workplace for the purpose of aiding the investigation by identifying the suspected hazard. The NIOSH officer may permit additional employer representatives and such additional representatives authorized by employees to accompany him where he determines that such additional representatives will further aid the investigation. However, if in the judgment of the NIOSH officer, good cause has been shown why accompaniment by a third party who is not an employee of the employer is reasonably necessary to the conduct of an effective and thorough investigation of the workplace, such third party may accompany the NIOSH officer during the inspection: Provided, however, That access by such persons to areas described in paragraph (d) of this section shall be in accordance with the requirements of such provision, and access to areas described in paragraph (e) of this section shall be with the consent of the employer. A different employer and employee representative may accompany the officer during each different phase of an inspection if this will not interfere with the conduct of the investigation.