Proposed OSHA Penalty Changes
A year after organizing a team to study current penalties and procedures, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released the results. Coming to the conclusion that current penalties for willful violations aren't acting as an effective deterrent, OSHA released a memo that included a number of proposed changes to the system.
Proposed changes include - but aren't limited to:
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An expansion of three years to five years for considering an employer’s history of violations
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A 10 percent penalty increase for any employer with a serious, willful, repeat or failure to abate violation in the last five years
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Dramatic increases in fines for repeated serious violations
OSHA representatives helped Builders Association members work through the proposed changes and what they would mean during Thursday's Contractor Safety Forum at the Chicagoland Construction Safety Council.
It remains unclear at this time what long-term impact these changes would have on the Builders Association's Safety Partnership with OSHA, which was recently renewed through 2012.
In other OSHA-related news, a bill currently in front of Congress - the Protecting America's Workers Act - could put project managers and safety directors in prison for their parts in willful safety violations. An OSHA official in Wisconsin spoke out against passage of the law, citing concerns about the ability of local offices to enforce the policies included in the bill.