SAFETY TIPS
Almost no facility is safe from an OSHA inspection. Have you evaluated your recordkeeping data? Have you received a letter from OSHA asking you to submit the OSHA form 300A? Is your company on the Targeted Site Inspection list? The data you submit could put your company on the inspection list. Employees can also lodge a complaint. Employees receiving serious, life-threatening injuries may have their injuries reported by the treating hospital.
Types of Violations:
Willful: A willful violation is defined as a violation in which the employer knew that a hazardous condition existed but made no reasonable effort to eliminate it and in which the hazardous condition violated a standard, regulation, or the OSH Act. Penalties range from $5,000 to $70,000 per willful violation.
Serious: A serious violation exists when the workplace hazard could cause injury or illness that would most likely result in death or serious physical harm, unless the employer did not know or could not have known of the violation. OSHA may propose a penalty of up to $7,000 for each violation.
Other-Than-Serious: An other-than-serious violation is defined as a situation in which the most serious injury or illness that would be likely to result from a hazardous condition cannot reasonably be predicted to cause death or serious physical harm to exposed employees but does have a direct and immediate relationship to their safety and health. OSHA may impose a penalty of up to $7,000 for each violation.
De Minimis: De minimis violations are violations that have no direct or immediate relationship to safety or health and do not result in citations.
Other: A violation that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but is not serious in nature, is classified as "other."
Failure to Abate: A failure to abate violation exists when the employer has not corrected a violation for which OSHA has issued a citation and the abatement date has passed or is covered under a settlement agreement. A failure to abate also exists when the employer has not complied with interim measures involved in a long-term abatement within the time given. OSHA may impose a penalty of up to $7,000 per day for each violation.
Repeated: An employer may be cited for a repeated violation if that employer has been cited previously for a substantially similar condition and the citation has become a final order of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. A citation is currently viewed as a repeated violation if it occurs within 3 years either from the date that the earlier citation becomes a final order or from the final abatement date, whichever is later. Repeated violations can bring a civil penalty of up to $70,000 for each violation.
For purposes of determining whether a violation is repeated, the following criteria generally apply:
- Fixed Establishments: Citations issued to employers having fixed establishments (such as factories, terminals, and stores) are not normally limited to the cited establishment. A multifacility employer, for example, can be cited for a repeated violation if the violation recurred at any plant nationwide, and if a citation is obtained and reveals a repeated violation.
- Nonfixed Establishments: For employers engaged in businesses having no fixed establishments (such as construction sites and oil and gas drilling sites), repeated violations are alleged based on prior violations occurring anywhere, and at any of the employer’s identified establishments nationwide, based on employer history.
- Longshoring Establishments: A longshoring establishment covers all long-shoring activities of a single stevedore within any single port area. Longshoring employers are subject to repeated violation citations based on prior violations occurring anywhere in the nation.
- Other Maritime Establishments: Other maritime establishments covered by OSHA standards (such as shipbuilding and ship repairing) are generally defined as fixed establishments. (See 1 above.)
A VIOLATION CAN BE CITED AS REPEATED IF THE EMPLOYER HAS BEEN CITED FOR THE SAME OR A SUBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR VIOLATION ANYWHERE IN THE NATION WITHIN THE PAST 3 YEARS.
Ensure that your safety programs are current and complete. Ensure that employees are currently trained in your safety procedures. Are you ready for an inspection? Can you afford an inspection?
Submitted by
Sharon Roman
Regulatory Compliance Consultants, Inc.
OSHA Outreach Instructor
American Heart Association Instructor Trainer
For more information or questions concerning this article, contact our office at 419-882-9224.
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- January 2010 - How Can We Protect Workers From Cold Stress?
- November 2009 - OSHA’s Revised Acetylene Standard
- Summer 2009 - First Aid in the Workplace
- December 2008 - UN Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)
- August 2008 - Preventing Heat Stress
- July 2008 - OSHA Beefs-Up Electrical Standard Requirements for General Industry
- March 2008 - OSHA’s Proposed Budget For FY 2009
- January 2008 - Revised Personal Protective Equipment Standard
- November 2007 - Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking changes
- October 2007 - APPENDIX A. Practice Recommendations for Health-Care Facilities Implementing the U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for Management of Occupational Exposures to Bloodborne Pathogens
- September 2007 - Changes to the Personal Protective Equipment Standards
- August 2007 - Heat Stress Guidance
- July 2007 - HAS YOUR COMPANY BEEN TARGETED?
- June 2007 - OSHA’s Revised Electrical Standards To Take Effect August 13 - expanded
- May 2007 - OSHA’s Revised Electrical Standards To Take Effect August 13
- April 2007 - WORKPLACE EMERGENCIES
- December 2006 - TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES – WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
- November 2006 - New OSHA Regulations Hexavalent Chromium (Cr(VI)) Employee Workplace Exposure, 1910.1026
- October 2006 - ARE YOU SAFE FROM AN OSHA INSPECTION?