OSHA’s Michaels: Egregious violations in Q1 double all of previous year

If employers needed any further proof that OSHA is following through on its promise to greatly increase enforcement, they need only look at initiatives the agency announced last week and a speech by OSHA’s chief that was reported in a newsletter article by a leading law firm.

In that speech, David Michaels said that OSHA cited almost twice as many employers for egregious violations in the first quarter of 2010 than it had in all of the previous fiscal year, according to a newsletter article by Robert A. Dimling and Andrew R. Kaake of Frost Brown Todd. Egregious violations are those considered so serious that OSHA assesses a separate penalty for each occurrence or each worker exposed. This can result in so-called “mega-fines.”

Last week, we reported in this blog on an internal memo from Michaels that presented details of a plan to increase penalties for OSHA citations. Michaels estimated that the plan would triple or quadruple the size of the average penalty.

In a webcast last week, Michaels also said that enforcement on ergonomics issues would be stepped up under the general duty clause. And he announced a proposal to require companies to put in place accident and illness prevention programs.

Earlier in April, details emerged on a Severe Violator Enforcement Program

This follows earlier announcements of a crackdown on recordkeeping.

Companies concerned about whether they are meeting all OSHA standards can conduct a mock OSHA audit and a recordkeeping review. If you would like outside assistance in doing so, FDRsafety would be happy to help. Contact me at jstanley@fdrsafety.com or (513) 317-5644.