The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is off to a banner 2023. Enforcement will be the agency’s priority and OSHA plans to use whatever tools necessary to carry out their mission. Here is a rundown of OSHA’s industrious year so far:
- The highest increase in maximum civil penalties since 2016, with a maximum civil penalty of $15,625 per non-willful and first time violations and a maximum increase to $156,259 for each willful or repeat violation.
- The expanded use of enforcement tools with the authority to issue broader “instance-by-instance” citations, including record-keeping. Prior long-standing policy, from 1990, was to issue “instance- by- instance” or “violation- by- violation” for egregious, willful citations only.
- Citing Amazon’s failure to keep warehouse workers safe in Florida, Illinois, Idaho, Colorado, and New York.
As we learned during the pandemic, the General Duty clause gives OSHA authority over all types of workplaces–not just factories. We expect to see more inspections and citations this year. We recently published a useful OHSA overview on our website. Consider taking a few minutes to review it.
And if you do not have a comprehensive Health & Safety Program, need manager safety training, or could use our best practice OSHA Audit, we can help. Our fixed fee services minimize risk so you can get back to business without worrying about OSHA.