OSHA levied penalties in the first quarter

•  OSHA levied hefty fines in the first quarter of 2023.
• LJ Home Improvement Inc. in Nanuet, New York, was fined $687,536 for lack of fall and head protection violations. The company is contesting the penalty.
• Guelsin Lima in Trenton, New Jersey, was fined $584,333 for 12 citations — nine willful and three serious — and half a million dollars in proposed penalties for allegedly exposing workers to fall hazards, improper ladder use, and failure to provide head and eye protection.
• Bowers Excavating in Mandan, North Dakota, was fined $505,333 after it allegedly failed to provide proper protection to workers in trenches, OSHA reported. The agency opened three inspections within 32 days in September and October.
  Read more

Infrastructure jobs face more scrutiny

• OSHA is inspecting more infrastructure projects as federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act money enter the industry.
• The agency is increasingly focused on construction, and last year inspected construction workplaces more than any other industry.
• As federal funds flood into construction over the next seven years thanks to the IIJA, OSHA is concerned about protecting workers in the infrastructure sector in particular.
• OSHA also recently released a webpage of resources with best practices, sample safety and health programs and training materials.
  Read more

Railroad safety at the forefront

• In the last 10 years, more than 2,000 railroad workers filed safety complaints with OSHA, according to data from the Surface Transportation Board.
• However, only 15 percent had “positive” outcomes for the worker in the last six years.
• The industry’s workforce shrank by more than 30 percent, from 171,000 employees across the Class I companies in 2015 to 112,000 in 2022 in the last 10 years.
• This has occurred as railroads cut labor and maintenance costs to achieve short-term profit margins that please shareholders at the expense of safety.
  Read more

OSHA’s actions in the Southeast

• From 2019 through 2021, North Carolina led in inspections per capita in Region 4, but in 2022, Kentucky had the most inspections per capita, according to the OSHA Tracker.
• Tennessee and Georgia exchanged ranking third as the state that received the most inspections per capita during this period.
• In North Carolina, OSHA conducted 12 percent fewer inspections in 2022 (2,581) than in 2021 (2,272), while conducting 22.8 percent more inspections in Florida in 2022 than in 2021.
• OSHA inspection activity in Mississippi during 2021 (318 inspections) and 2022 (469) resulted in the largest percentage increase—47.5 percent—among Region 4 states, and also resulted in the state overtaking South Carolina (423 inspections in 2021,
  Read more