OSHA Announces Penalty Increase Of Nearly 80%

by, Robert Box

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an effort to advance the effectiveness of monetary penalties on businesses that do not provide safe and healthful workplaces, Congress passed an Act in 2015 to increase OSHA’s penalty structure by 78% starting August 1 of this year.

“Civil penalties should be a credible deterrent that influences behavior far and wide,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “Adjusting our penalties to keep pace with the cost of living can lead to significant benefits for workers and can level the playing field [for] responsible employers who should not have to compete with those who don’t follow the law.”

Congress’ intent with the 2015 law was to modernize some penalties that have long lost ground to inflation, including:

OSHA’s maximum penalties, which have not been raised since 1990, will increase by 78 percent.

• The top penalty for serious violations will rise from $7,000 to $12,471.
• The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations will increase from $70,000 to $124,709.

With these penalty increases, it won’t take much for OSHA to cobble together a few violations in order to place an employer into the Severe Violator Program (SVP). Once in SVP, it is extremely difficult to extricate one’s business from the program.

Safety First Consulting helps businesses identify OSHA compliance issues in their workplaces, manage their safety programs, and we become accountable for the results. In addition to offering custom written safety programs for companies, Safety First Consulting provides required safety training, industrial hygiene sampling, noise sampling, and workplace inspections.