OSHA Is Alive And Well
By Lawrence F. Feheley
I was recently at a meeting of employment lawyers and someone asked if OSHA had issued any significant new standards or requirements, since virtually every other federal agency has tried to expand the landscape of their domain. The answer is “NO,” but that OSHA has simply made violations of the existing standards much more expensive.
The average penalty for a serious citation issued by OSHA in 2011 is more than double that from the previous year. The increases are due to a revised penalty formula, which reduces the credits or reduction factors available to employers.
In OSHA’s view, the penalties are still too low. OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels has publicly defended raising the penalties even more.
Although the overall number of OSHA inspections is down, more than half of the inspections (56%) occur in the construction industry.
Credits
Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter's E-mployment Alert is prepared by the Labor & Employee Relations practice group.
To subscribe to any Kegler Brown publication, please use our Subscribe Form. This publication, as well as an archive of previous publications, is also available from our Publications Archive.
The E-mployment Alert is designed to provide general information about the subjects discussed. It is not meant to be all-inclusive or comprehensive. Kegler Brown is not rendering any legal or professional advice by way of this publication.
© 1998-2012, Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter Co., L.P.A.