OSHA makes changes to enforcement guidance
The U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued new enforcement guidance to make its penalties more effective in stopping employers from repeatedly exposing workers to life-threatening hazards or failing to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements.
OSHA Regional Administrators and Area Office Directors now have the authority to cite certain types of violations as “
instance-by-instance citations” for cases where the agency identifies “high-gravity” serious violations of OSHA standards specific to certain conditions where the language of the rule supports a citation for each instance of non-compliance.
These conditions include lockout/tagout, machine guarding, permit-required confined space, respiratory protection, falls, trenching and for cases with other-than-serious violations specific to recordkeeping.
The change is intended to ensure OSHA personnel are applying the full authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Act where increased citations are needed to discourage non-compliance.
The new guidance covers enforcement activity in general industry, agriculture, maritime and construction industries, and becomes effective 60 days from Jan. 26, 2023.
The current policy has been in place since 1990 and applies only to egregious willful citations.
In a second action, OSHA is reminding its Regional Administrators and Area Directors of their authority
not to group violations, and instead cite them separately to more effectively encourage employers to comply with the intent of the OSH Act.
“Smart, impactful enforcement means using all the tools available to us when an employer ‘doesn’t get it’ and will respond to only additional deterrence in the form of increased citations and penalties,” explained Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker.
“This is intended to be a targeted strategy for those employers who repeatedly choose to put profits before their employees’ safety, health and wellbeing.
Employers who callously view injured or sickened workers simply as a cost of doing business will face more serious consequences.”
These changes in enforcement guidance are important enforcement tools to help deter employers from disregarding their responsibilities to protect workers and ensure compliance with OSHA standards and regulations.
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Incident Report: Worker dies after being struck by forklift, OHSA cites Texas company
A U.S. Department of Labor investigation has determined a Carrollton, Texas, lumber supplier and retailer could have prevented the death of an 18-year-old worker who was struck by a forklift at a Rison, Arkansas, worksite in July 2022 by following federal safety requirements.
Inspectors learned that the young worker had dropped the forklift’s key after parking the motorized device.
As the worker searched for the key, the forklift rolled and struck the teenager who was assigned to pull and count lumber, and unsupervised at the time of the incident.
Investigators determined the forklift’s original parking brake had been removed and replaced with a makeshift brake which failed to hold the machine in place.
Following its investigation, OSHA cited the company for one willful and four serious violations alleging that Hixson Lumber Company failed to train the teen worker, left keys inside unsecured forklifts, and did not make sure the forklift used by the teenager had a proper parking brake, working horn and backup alarm as required.
OSHA has proposed $218,759 in penalties.
“A family, his friends and co-workers are left to mourn a young man whose life was cut short because his employer failed to follow safety requirements that would have prevented this tragedy,” said OSHA Area Director Kia McCullough in Little Rock, Arkansas.
“Hixson Lumber Company did not meet its legal responsibility to ensure that hazardous equipment was maintained, and that only trained and certified workers are allowed operate forklifts.”
The company has 15 business days from receipt of citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
According to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, just over 9,000 workers were injured from forklifts in 2017. That same year, 74 workers died from injuries involving forklifts.
Ask Bob
Free technical support for all IVES Certified Trainers!
Question:
Hi Bob,
Is there a timeline between Forklift exam and their final evaluation?
The reason for asking is, I have a few workers that passed their exam a few months ago, but have not yet completed their practical evaluation.
I am currently going through past records.and wanted to know to how to proceed.
Answer:
Thanks for checking in with us.
I’ll assume that this is for initial operator qualifications and not requalifications and I’ll also assume that they are not using the equipment since their evaluations were never finished.
Time between theory and evaluations can be little subjective on how to handle but I think the best answer would be to train them all over again since many months have passed.
If it was a requalification, I would suggest conducting the evaluations as soon as possible and move forward.
Bob
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