OSHA changes the way it fines
- The U.S. Labor Dept. made changes to OSHA civil penalty amounts based on cost-of-living adjustments for 2023.
- OSHA’s maximum penalties for serious and other-than-serious violations will increase from $14,502 per violation to $15,625 per violation.
- The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations will increase from $145,027 per violation to $156,259 per violation.
- In 2015, Congress passed the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act to advance the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect.
OSHA penalizes N.J. roofing firm
- OSHA deemed a Trenton roofing contractor responsible for putting its workers’ safety at risk less than four months after citing the firm for exposing unprotected workers to deadly fall hazards.
- OSHA opened an inspection of Guelsin Lima, operating as Extreme Roofing and Siding LLC, at an Upper Saddle River worksite.
- During the inspection, OSHA inspectors observed four workers on a roof exposed to a 30-foot fall hazard without fall protection, as well as additional violations at the worksite on other days that week.
- Following the July inspection, the agency issued Lima 12 citations and proposed $584,333 in penalties for exposing workers to hazards.
Chemical Safety Board asks for guidance
- The Chemical Safety Board recommends that OSHA develop guidance on the process hazard analysis element of its standard on process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals.
- The board issued a report after an explosion and fire at a Wisconsin refinery.
- The explosion occurred in the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking unit while workers were on a break during a scheduled maintenance shutdown.
- The board asked for guidance to place a particular focus on safe operating procedures during transient operations in facilities with processes covered by the Process Safety Management standard.
Man recovering after trench collapsed
- The contractor, working on a water line in the backyard of an Allentown, Pennsylvania, home, when the trench collapsed.
- Despite his ordeal, the employee survived and was conscious and talking to crews while his rescue was underway – which took eight hours.
- In a 2016 planned inspection of the employer, Ed Simon Contracting, OSHA found three serious violations involving trench excavation hazards that resulted in a fine of $5,500.
- The United States experienced 35 trench fatalities in 2022, the most in at least 10 years.