Employers across the country are being hit with big penalties for safety and health violations all the time. Make sure you have the safety resources and information you need to stay in compliance and keep your company’s name out of the headlines.
OSHA assesses penalties on the basis of:
- Gravity of the alleged violation
- Size of the business
- Employer’s good faith in attempting to comply
- Employer’s history of prior violations
You can find the exact regulatory language permitting OSHA to assess penalties in 29 CFR 1903.15.
Need to keep up to date on workplace safety to prevent OSHA citations and fines? Great news! BLR’s renowned Safety.BLR.com® website is now available in Version 2.0. Take our no-cost site tour! Or better yet, try it at no cost or obligation for a full 2 weeks.
Don’t Be Next
Here’s a small sample of news reporting OSHA fines assessed during the first 6 months of this year, courtesy of our sister publication the OSHA Compliance Advisor:
Nutrition Products Co. Facing $1M Plus in OSHA Fines. The fines came after the Wisconsin plant was inspected as a result of a complaint alleging numerous hazards. Among other violations, OSHA issued willful citations for failure to comply with confined space and lockout/tagout regulations.
Chem Company Cited Heavily for Exposing Employees to Poison. The St. Louis–based company was inspected after OSHA learned that employees had been admitted to local hospitals after being contaminated with an unknown powder. Investigators determined that employees were exposed to paranitroaniline (PNA), a chemical that reduces the ability of the blood to transport oxygen. OSHA issued 21 willful citations, 20 of which were cited on a per-instance basis and assessed fines totaling $1.2 million.
Poultry Company Pleads Guilty in Employee Exposure Case. Following the death of an employee at an Arkansas plant, the company was charged with criminal violations and ordered by a federal court to pay a $500,000 penalty.
Sugar Company Warned Long Before Accident Occurred. The Georgia refinery was cited and fined following an accident associated with sugar dust that killed 14 people. OSHA assessed fines of $8.7 million, the third largest in OSHA history.
Now there’s much more of a good thing! Try the new Version 2.0 of Safety.BLR.com. Go here to take a no-cost site tour or here to try it in your own office!
Simple, Quick, and Effective
Whether safety training is mandated by OSHA, by your employer, or simply by your personal desire to keep employees safe, safety meetings are a great forum for communicating information. Safety meetings are efficient, cost-effective, and practical. The half hour or so you spend once or twice a month will be repaid in fewer accidents, a safer workplace, and less chance of OSHA citations and fines. What more could you ask from any safety initiative?
The safety meetings provided by Safety.BLR.com® (more than 185 of them) are just one of the reasons the website is such a terrific resource for safety professionals.
Training responsibilities become a snap with the website’s thousands of audio presentations, PowerPoint® presentations, meetings, toolbox talks, trainer’s guides, and much, much more. You’ll find training tools on more than 150 safety topics along with plain-English compliance analysis and other resources.
At a time when budget considerations are paramount, what makes more sense than an all-in-one safety training and compliance solution?
And BLR recently revamped Safety.BLR.com® to meet your needs even better. Those of you who used the site in its original version will be amazed by all the new features and functionality. Highlights include:
- Side-by-Side State/Federal Compliance. By placing our state and federal regulatory analysis side by side, you easily see how to fully comply with both governmental entities.
- MSDS Library Expansion. The site now provides an immense library of 3.5 million MSDS forms, with about 10,000 more added or changed every week. Need one? Just call up the chemical by name, manufacturer, product group, or CAS number; then print it out.
- Newsletter Wizard. If you’ve ever wanted to publish a safety newsletter but felt lacking in editorial skills, this new addition is for you.
- Plan Builder. Select from our library of safety plans, customize them to suit your company’s needs, and assemble them into collections you can save in our personal library.
We’re pretty excited about Safety.BLR.com® and all of its recent enhancements, and we’re eager for you to experience it, too. That’s why we’ve created a complimentary site tour, available here. It takes just 5 minutes.
If you like what you see, you’re invited to try the site at no cost and with no obligation. We’ll even give you a complimentary special report for doing so. It may be just what you’re looking for.
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