Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
If OSHA knocked on your door, how would you respond? Would you throw open the doors to your facility and give the inspector free reign, or would you demand that the inspector obtain a warrant before entering? That decision—and the many others that take place throughout the course of an OSHA inspection—can have a major […]
The fact that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cannot inspect every U.S. workplace is little consolation when the agency decides to inspect yours. We take you inside an OSHA inspection and provide tips to help your organization prepare for a successful outcome.
Many employers will have to electronically file challenges to OSHA citations under a new set of legal procedures published April 10.
OSHA uses the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) as a “gotcha” or “catchall” for hazards with no established standards, the members of a federal review board recently said.
The National Employment Law Project claimed Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforcement activity has declined in the past two years. The report, “Workplace Safety Enforcement Continues to Decline in Trump Administration,” points to a low number of OSHA inspectors as the primary cause. The full picture, however, is likely more complicated.
On March 11, OSHA will begin enforcing additional provisions of its general industry beryllium standard. The agency will begin enforcing requirements for change rooms and showers.
OSHA plans to put out a request for information about its crystalline silica standard for the construction industry.
OSHA’s final rule to increase its civil penalties by approximately 2.5% for 2019, with a new maximum single-violation penalty for willful and repeat violations of $132,598, has been published in the Federal Register and took effect immediately on January 23, 2019. The penalty increases adjust for inflation as required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation […]
An administrative law judge with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) took the middle ground in a dispute between OSHA and a small grain seed-handling business in North Dakota over the amount of a monetary penalty OSHA assessed for multiple violations of worker safety standards. The case can serve to illustrate the […]
In August 2018, OSHA issued a “working paper” that comprised the Agency’s first assessment of the “societal benefits” of its On-Site Consultation (OSC) program. The benefits come in multiple forms—workplace hazards identified, injuries avoided, and monetary benefits, including worker income not lost and costs avoided for employers and workers’ compensation.