Posts Tagged ‘Occupational Safety and Health Administration’

A New Era for OSHA

Included in the budget signed by Congress and the President on November 2, 2015 was an increase in OSHA penalties. This is the first time OSHA penalties have increased in 25 years.

OSHA has yet to issue its interim final rule, clarifying the fine increases; however, it is anticipated that the standard fines will increase approximately 80 percent. Thus, the new fine schedule is anticipated to change as follows:

  • “Serious violations” and “other than serious violations” previously were a maximum fine of $7,000; they are likely to increase to a maximum fine of $12,600.
  • “Willful violations” and “repeat” violations previously were a maximum fine of $70,000; they are likely to increase to a maximum fine of $126,000.

These new fine amounts will go into effect once OSHA issues a final interim rule, confirming the new fine amounts. The rule will go into effect by August 1, 2016, at the latest.

In the meantime, OSHA has continued to vigilantly enforce the standards. This month, a Lancaster County residential homebuilder was cited $64,400 in proposed penalties. The majority of the fines arose from two willful citations. One willful citation for $28,000 arose from three separate uses of forklifts to create a scaffold without proper fall protection. A second willful citation of $28,000 was for employees installing roofing shingles without the proper use of fall protection.

Certain common sense techniques are the best protection from OSHA citations. Emphasize safety by routinely training employees; create a safety program, and hire a safety director, if within the budget; and always prioritize safety on the jobsite. Also ensure that employees are familiar with the most common safety issues and proper protection. In 2015, the top 3 OSHA (construction) standards frequently cited for penalties were as follows:

  1. Fall Protection.
  2. Scaffolding.
  3. Ladders.

When creating a safety program, it is best to rely upon specialized consultants. When resolving or defending OSHA citations, it is best to seek legal advice. Safety has always been a priority for construction companies; now, with the increase in fines, properly handling OSHA citations is too.

What’s Happening Now . . .

       12.3%

  • 2015 Increase in private construction spending.
  • 2015 had private construction spending of $806.1 billion.
  • 2014 had private construction spending of 717.7 billion.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau News, December 2015 Construction at $1,116.6 billion annual rate, US Dept. of Commerce (Feb. 1, 2016).

 

Newsletter written by Jeffrey C. Bright, Esq. , an attorney licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland. For more information, contact an attorney at Harmon & Davies, P.C.

Employment          Construction           Business

2306 Columbia Ave. | Lancaster, PA 17603

T: 717.291.2236 | www.h-dlaw.com

 

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Earlier this year OSHA fined two construction companies over $115,000 following a crane accident that killed one worker and seriously injured another.  The construction companies were working on a bridge when the decedent was struck by the boom of a crane that overturned.  Another worker was seriously injured when he was ejected from the crane cab.

OSHA fined the construction company in charge of operating the crane $105,000 for one willful violation and five serious violations for allegedly failing to train workers regarding their roles and on ways to use signaling methods.  The company also allegedly failed to attach the crane to the proper barge and failed to implement or meet minimum requirements of a critical lift plan, including designating a lift conductor and organizing lift preparation meetings.

OSHA had inspected the company five times since 2009 and following the latest incident OSHA was placing the company on the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which focuses on employers with willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate violations.

The other company provided manpower for erecting girders on the project.  It was fined $13,200 for four serious violations including:  failing to develop an effective safety program, faling to conduct competent and qualified trainand failing to comply with crane operating standards.

The construction law attorneys at Harmon & Davies are here to assist contractors with developing effective safety programs and with contesting OSHA citations.  Above all, we care about our construction clients and we can’t emphasize enough how important it is for them to have the proper safety procedures in place to protect their workforce.

This article is authored by attorney Shannon O. Young and is intended for educational purposes and to give you general information and a general understanding of the law only, not to provide specific legal advice. Any particular questions should be directed to your legal counsel or, if you do not have one, please feel free to contact us.

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Last month the owner of a Pennsylvania painting company plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count of a “willful violation of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulation causing the death of an employee” and was sentenced to a year of probation.  The charge stemmed from the 2010 death of one of the owner’s employees who was sadly electrocuted while using a paint roller at the end of a fiberglass extension pole to reach an upper section of a 30-foot-tall commercial building when the pole came into contact with electrical wires.  Although the owner had warned the employee that the lines were “very dangerous” and to be “extra careful,” he failed to provide any safety related training to the employee and took no steps to protect the employee from the energized lines.  The contractor was cited by federal prosecutors for violating 29 C.F.R. §1926.416(a)(1), which requires employers to prevent workers from laboring close to any part of an electric power circuit unless they are protected against electric shock through insulation of the circuit or de-energizing and grounding of the circuit.

In addition to the criminal charge, OSHA had already fined the contractor $57,400 for one willful and two serious violations stemming from the agency’s investigation into the 2010 death.  May this case serve as a reminder of how important safety related training truly is and how every effort should be made to protect employees from danger.

However, if you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having to contest an OSHA citation, the attorneys at Harmon & Davies, P.C. are here to assist you.

This article is authored by attorney Shannon O. Young and is intended for educational purposes and to give you general information and a general understanding of the law only, not to provide specific legal advice. Any particular questions should be directed to your legal counsel or, if you do not have one, please feel free to contact us.

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Construction Contractor Gets OSHA Citations Vacated

In November 2006, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) cited and fined Volks Constructors, a full service heavy industrial contractor, $13,300 for failing to properly record certain workplace injuries and for failing to properly maintain its injury log between January 2002 and April 2006.  The contractor contested the citations on the grounds that they were untimely because they were issued at least six months after the last recorded injury occurred.  Pursuant to OSHA regulations, no citation may be issued after the expiration of six months following the occurrence of any violation.

By way of background, the Occupational Safety and Health Act provides that each employer shall make, keep and preserve records of workplace injuries and illnesses.  OSHA regulations require employers to record information about work-related injuries and illnesses in three ways:

(1)               employers must prepare an incident report and a separate injury log within seven calendar days of receiving information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred;

(2)               employers must prepare a year-end summary report of all recordable injuries during the calendar year, which summary must be certified by a company executive; and

(3)               the employer must save all of these documents for five years from the end of the calendar year that those records cover.

In the case of Volks Constructors, OSHA began an inspection of Volks in May 2006 and discovered that Volks had not been diligent in completing its logs, forms, and summaries between 2002 and 2006.  OSHA then took approximately six months to issue a set of citations to Volks for violations related to Volks’ failure to fully complete incident report forms, its failure to enter injuries in the log, its failure to conduct year-end reviews between 2002 and 2005 and, in at least one instance, its failure to have the proper person certify the year-end review.  Notably, Volks was not cited for any violation of the requirement that it save the forms and the log for five years.

Volks’ improperly recorded injuries occurred between January 11, 2002 at the earliest and April 22, 2006 at the latest.  By the time OSHA issued the citations in November, however, the citations were issued a maximum of 54 months after the earliest improperly recorded injury and a minimum of six months, plus ten days, after the latest improperly recorded injury.

Volks moved to dismiss the citations as untimely because OSHA regulations state that no citation may be issued after the expiration of six months following the occurrence of any violation and the injuries giving rise to Volks’ recording failures took place more than six months before the issuance of the citations.  An OSHA Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) ruled in favor of OSHA and Volks appealed to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (“OSHRC”).  On appeal the Secretary of Labor argued that Volks’ violations were continuing violations that prevented the six month statute of limitations from expiring until the end of the five-year document retention period.  The Secretary essentially argued that because Volks’ violations were still occurring on May 10, 2006 when the inspection began, the citations were timely because they were issued within six months of May 10, 2006.  The Commission agreed with the Secretary and affirmed the citations.  Volks then filed a petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

On review, the District of Columbia Circuit was asked to decide whether OSHA’s record-keeping requirement, in conjunction with the five-year regulatory retention period permits OSHA to subvert the six-month statute of limitations.

In reviewing the Commission’s decision, the Circuit Court noted that pursuant to OSHA regulations, OSHA may cite employers for violations within six months of the violation’s occurrence; meaning if an injury is reported on May 1, OSHA can cite an employer for the failure to create a record beginning on May 8, and may issue a valid citation for such failure anytime within the following six months, and only the following six months.  Moreover, once an employer has made such a record, it must also retain it for five years.  If the employer loses or destroys a record before the end of the five year record retention period this is another violation.   OSHA may cite employers for violations of the five year record retention requirement within six months of the violation’s occurrence.  In other words, OSHA may cite a company for failure to maintain its records for the required five years for six months after the fifth year, and only for six months after the fifth year.  In the Volks case, OSHA never cited Volks for a violation of the five year record retention requirement because it could not cite Volks for the loss or destruction of a record that Volks never made.  Rather, OSHA only cited Volks for the failure to create a record.

Thus, the DC Circuit Court concluded that the citations were issued far too late and therefore had to be vacated.  The court concluded that the statutory language which deals with record keeping is not authorization for OSHA to cite the employer for a record-making violation more than six months after the recording failure. Rather, OSHA must enforce record-making violations swiftly or else forfeit the chance to do so.

In reaching this decision, the DC Circuit Court strongly disagreed with the Secretary’s argument that the five year record keeping requirement extended the statute of limitations by noting that the Secretary’s interpretation incorrectly assumed that the obligation to maintain an existing record expands the scope of an otherwise discrete obligation to make the record in the first place.  The Circuit Court viewed the two obligations as distinct stating “one cannot keep what never existed; a company cannot retain a record it never created.”

Notably, the DC Circuit Court distinguished the Volks case as a case of inaction ( i.e., Volks failed to properly create certain reports) from a case of continuing action.  For example, the court noted that where a company continues to subject its employees to unsafe machines, or continues to send its employees into dangerous situations without appropriate training, OSHA may be able to toll the statute of limitations on a continuing violations theory because the dangers created by the violations persist.

Based on the decision reached in the Volks case, if you receive an OSHA citation more than six months after a discrete violation of an OSHA regulation, you should strongly consider contesting the citation on the grounds of timeliness.  The attorneys at Harmon & Davies can assist you with contesting OSHA citations.

This article is authored by attorney Shannon O. Young and is intended for educational purposes and to give you general information and a general understanding of the law only, not to provide specific legal advice.  Any particular questions should be directed to your legal counsel or, if you do not have one, please feel free to contact us.

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Vigilant Against Violence

Workplace violence is a subject that most people do not like to discuss. After all, most times when workplace incidents make the news, they are shocking and frightening, and it’s simply easier to say “That will never happen here.” Unfortunately, that’s not always true, as nearly 2 million workers reported having been victims of workplace violence each year, with even more going unreported.

Federal laws only provide general guidance, in the form of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which requires employers to provide a safe workplace. While workplace violence is not always preventable, there are proactive steps you can take to reduce the risks and hopefully prevent a situation before it becomes dangerous, including:

  • Training managers and supervisors on the early warning signs of potential violence and how to address them
  • Implementing a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program
  • Clearly communicating to employees that the company wants to know when there are threats or incidents, and how serious the company is about handling issues
  • Making a good faith effort to investigate complaints where there is a reasonable concern that the employee’s behavior may cause harm to themselves or others
  • Considering additional security measures (sign-in desk, key-card systems, increased lighting, and video surveillance)
  • Identifying to all employees the contact person for communicating safety concerns or incidents

It is important to note, when preparing preventative measures, that workplace violence is not limited to employees; it also includes customers, clients and visitors.

Of course, while all of these measures will raise costs, it will likely be less expensive than the costs of a workplace violence incident. A 2006 study by Liberty Mutual reported assaults and violent acts as the 10th leading cost of non-fatal occupation injuries, at a cost of $400 million. Indirect costs, though difficult to quantify can include diverted attention and resources, loss of public trust, and reputational damage. Workplace violence can result in a number of legal actions against employers, including civil litigation, OSHA citations or fines and workers’ compensation. The key, as always, is finding a balanced approach that works for your particular business.

This article is authored by attorney Casey L. Sipe and is intended for educational purposes and to give you general information and a general understanding of the law only, not to provide specific legal advice.  Any particular questions should be directed to your legal counsel or, if you do not have one, please feel free to contact us.

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