As the average age of workers rises due to delayed retirements, the economic recession and other factors, employers’ attorneys are warning companies that OSHA could step up enforcement related to ergonomics hazards that can pose a greater risk to older workers even though the agency lacks an explicit ergonomics standard.
OSHA is rolling out a new enforcement initiative that will automatically ramp up inspections of employers that fail to pay monetary penalties for past violations, as part of a broader Department of Labor (DOL) push to bolster its debt collection programs.
OSHA is updating its Site-Specific Targeting (SST) workplace inspection program to add new criteria for inspecting employers based on increases in days away, restricted or transferred (DART) among their employees, and to allow inspectors to make a case-by-case decision to switch site inspections to records reviews “in limited situations.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) will hear a case testing the standard of evidence OSHA must meet to prove violations of the OSH Act’s general duty clause, after an administrative law judge (ALJ) rejected an enforcement action over a utility worker’s 2018 death near Jacksonville, FL.
Employers’ attorneys expect the Biden OSHA to step up a long list of enforcement activities, including conducting more inspections, filing more claims of “egregious” safety violations, seeking higher penalties and invoking the multi-employer doctrine more frequently, alongside a binding COVID-19 standard and other new rules.
OSHA is touting a $1.5 million settlement in a criminal enforcement case centered on a worker’s 2016 death by crushing at an Alabama auto-parts plant, including a three-year judicially mandated timeline for the firm to improve hazardous energy control measures at the facility.
New OSHA data on its COVID-19 enforcement shows the agency is most often citing employers for violating respiratory protection standards but rarely invokes the general duty clause, even as OSHA is claiming that it can use that authority to mandate distancing, face coverings and other measures not required in regulation.
Attorneys representing employers are warning their clients to prepare for a rapid increase in OSHA enforcement and regulation as part of a broader realignment of the Department of Labor expected under President-elect Joe Biden’s administration following Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
President-Elect Joe Biden’s defeat of President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election sets up a quick reversal of several Trump OSHA policies including the agency’s decision not to craft an enforceable COVID-19 safety standard, along with likely moves to bolster its enforcement program and revive Obama-era rulemaking efforts.
Unions plan to urge Democratic nominee Joe Biden to quickly strengthen OSHA’s enforcement program if he wins the Nov. 3 presidential election by arguing that it would be the most effective way to boost worker safety, while bracing for “an all-out assault on worker protections” if President Donald Trump wins re-election.