OSHA Penalties and How to Avoid Them
Written by Michael Purser
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspects tens of thousands of workplaces every year. Many of those inspections result in citations, which can include stiff penalties for safety violations and lax standards enforcement.
This article explains the types of penalties OSHA can assign, the monetary fines associated with each and what happens if you ignore a citation.
Understanding OSHA Violations and Associated Fines
Every citation has different circumstances. Even if the same situation arises at two different locations, the severity and implications of each instance may vary. To better protect workers, the administration created various types of OSHA violations.
The types of OSHA violations are:
Serious
A serious violation is likely to result in serious injury or death. An incident cannot be classified as serious if the employer did not know or could not have known about the violation. OSHA gives top priority to allegations of serious violations and reports of imminent danger situations.
Other-Than-Serious
Any issue that is directly related to job safety and health but is not serious in nature belongs in this category. This type represents a broad variety of workplace safety violations and serves as a sort of catch-all for any citation that doesn't fit into any of the other designations.
De Minimis
This is the least severe type of infraction. If the incident has no direct or immediate relationship to health or safety, no fine is applied to the citation. This class does not usually require abatement activities, but the incident is still logged for future reference.
Willful
A citation is regarded as willful if an employer knowingly fails to comply with legal requirements, flouts the law or acts with indifference to employee safety.
Repeated
This classification is reserved for situations in which an employer has been cited for the same — or a materially similar — condition more than once in the past five years. It doesn't matter whether the first citation was considered serious, other-than-serious or de minimis.
Failure to Abate
Like the last type, this class represents an ongoing problem. If employers fail to comply with the conditions set forth by an official inspection within the allotted time frame, they begin to accrue failure-to-abate penalties.
Posting Requirements
When an employer receives an OSHA Notice, it must be posted at or near the site of each violation. Doing so makes workers aware of standards violations on the jobsite. The notice must remain posted for three working days or until the hazard is abated, whichever is longer. Failure to post the required notice carries its own fine.
Penalties and Fines
The minimum and maximum penalties for each kind of violation are established by law in 29 CFR 1903.15.
De minimis citations do not come with a monetary penalty. Posting requirement, serious and other-than-serious violations have the same maximum fine. The specific amount of each fine is based on the size of the employer, the nature of the hazard and other factors.
When those charges fail to deter violators, inspectors apply steeper penalties. The biggest OSHA fines of all are reserved for instances of flagrant or continued non-compliance. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated citations is 10 times the maximum penalty for serious, other-than-serious or posting requirement fines.
While most fines apply on a per-violation basis, that's not the only way the administration can cite offenders. Fines switch from per violation to per day if an employer fails to adequately remedy the problem within the provided timeframe.
The per-day fee is usually equal to the value of the original penalty. The fine continues to accrue until the matter is resolved. It pays to comply quickly.
Good Faith and Bad Actors
The monetary value of a penalty may be reduced for small employers and those acting in good faith. While the administration has significant latitude to reduce penalties, no adjustments will be made for willful violations.
In fact, some frequent or unrepentant employers are referred to the Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP). The SVEP allows the administration to keep an eye on bad actors or mandate additional follow-up measures where appropriate.
Annual Changes
Fines change on an annual basis. Under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, OSHA penalties automatically increase, putting them in line with inflation each year.
Annual fine indexing isn't unique to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The rule applies to all federal agencies. For more information on OSHA fines, including the final rule for each year, check the Federal Register.
Avoiding Safety Violations
Employers can respond in several ways after receiving a citation. The simplest is to comply with inspector instructions. Remedy the violation, notify OSHA of corrective action and pay the associated fine by the compliance date.
Individuals may reach out to the OSHA Area Director for an informal conference to discuss the inspection results. This conference may modify the terms of the agreement or simply help an employer make a sound plan to address the issue.
If an employer believes the details of the citation to be factually incorrect or unreasonable, the organization has 15 working days to contest the ruling. The cited party must send a formal written notice appealing the inspection results.
Remember, simply ignoring the problem won't make it go away. Just like a simple cut can turn into a life-threatening infection, a single violation can turn into repeated fines and ever-accruing fees if left untreated.
The easiest way to deal with safety violations is to prevent them altogether. And one of the best ways to prevent workplace hazards is through effective training. Online safety training protects workers from injury and protects employers from liability through compliance education.
Online Training Options
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration partners with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to provide general safety awareness education through the Outreach Training Program. The popular OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 programs are designed to promote workplace safety and teach workers about their rights under federal law.
Students who complete an authorized program earn an official DOL card demonstrating their mastery of workplace safety principles. These workers are trained to spot, avoid and abate common hazards found on worksites across the country. Highly trained employees can protect themselves, their coworkers and their companies from costly accidents and deadly hazards.
That's just the beginning. OSHA Education Center offers high-quality, 100% online training courses on more than 150 subjects. We're a leading provider of construction and general industry education and an OSHA-authorized provider of Outreach Training. We can teach you or your employees how to become a designated competent person, drive a forklift or safely handle hazardous materials.
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Whether you're investing in your own safety or coordinating a corporate compliance program, we can help you achieve your goals. Sign up and start learning today!