One way is to correct the problem quickly, as a recent case before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) shows.

An OSHA inspector visited a worksite in Tarrytown, NY, where MVM Contracting Corp. was hired to perform construction and renovation work.

After the inspection, OSHA issued a willful violation to MVM, saying it failed to protect employees working in an excavation from a cave-in. Employees had been working in an excavation without shoring that was more than five feet deep. The penalty: $21,000.

MVM didn’t contest the citation itself, just its classification as willful. An OSHRC law judge heard the appeal and reclassified the violation as serious. The fine dropped to $2,100.

OSHA appealed to the full commission, which reinstated the willful classification and the $21,000 fine.

This is how OSHRC came to its decision: The first time he visited the MVM worksite, the inspector provided the superintendent with detailed information about OSHA’s excavation standards and told him the company was in violation.

The inspector returned four days later to find no additional protection provided in the excavation. The inspector testified that the superintendent told him employees had worked in the excavation after the first inspection without cave-in protection.

OSHRC says the superintendent’s knowledge of the excavation standard and his conscious failure to bring the worksite into compliance amounted to a willful violation.

In a nutshell: The company would have faced a fine only 1/10th the size if it would have corrected the violation before the inspector’s next visit or barred employees from entering the excavation until corrections were made.

(Secretary of Labor v. MVM Contracting Corp., OSHRC, No. 07-1350, 7/20/10.) Click here for a PDF of the OSHRC decision.

OSHA cited Danbury Hospital in Connecticut with one serious violation of the GDC for failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious injury to workers. In this case, the hazard is employees being injured by violent patients. The fine: $6,300.

OSHA says it identified several instances during the past 18 months in which employees in the hospital’s psychiatric ward, emergency ward and general medical floors were injured by violent patients. The agency’s report cites 25 cases in the past five years in which hospital employees lost workdays or were put on restricted duty after being injured by patients.

Police say in March, a patient, Stanley Lupienski, shot nurse Andy Hull three times. Lupienski is charged with first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, illegal discharge of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit. Hull hasn’t returned to work at the hospital.

OSHA says its investigation was prompted by worker complaints. The president of Danbury Nurses Union, Unit 47, Mary Consoli, says the union complained to OSHA.

Danbury Hospital says it doesn’t agree with all the details of OSHA’s report, but it won’t contest the citation. The hospital says it’s already made changes to its security system.

OSHA recommended the hospital create a written violence prevention program that includes hazard assessment, prevention strategies, staff training, incident reporting and periodic review.

OSHA’s website notes that there is no regulation regarding workplace violence, but the GDC can apply.

OSHA’s guidelines for preventing workplace violence for health care and social workers can be found here.

Did OSHA make the right decision to cite the hospital for a GDC violation involving workplace violence? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below. Also, take our poll on OSHA’s use of the GDC on our home page.

But while OSHA has the pedal to the metal, it doesn’t want hell-for-leather motorists doing the same thing — at least not where workers could be endangered as a result.

A road and bridge construction company in Miami found that out the hard way. When workers closed off a lane on a major Florida highway, they posted a new and reduced speed limit sign.

Only problem: They didn’t remove or cover the existing speed limit sign.

It seems doubtful that motorists figured they could choose between the two posted speed limits, but OSHA wasn’t having it. Calling it a “blatant disregard for the safety and health of workers” and a “willful violation,” OSHA slapped the company with a $63,000 fine.

A newly added two-hour component focuses on workers’ rights. Among the topics it covers in detail:

• how to file complaints about your employer
• your right to refuse any work you think is too dangerous, and
• assurances that if you do either of the above, you’ll be protected by whistleblower provisions.

The workers’ rights component is now a required part of every 10- and 30-hour class.

“For too long, workers have avoided making claims of unsafe work conditions out of fear of losing their jobs,” OSHA head David Michaels said in a release. “We are confident that this new training will embolden workers to speak up when they find work practices that endanger their lives and the lives of their co-workers.”

Is OSHA opening a can of worms by trying to “embolden” workers, or is this needed to address chronic under-reporting of injuries. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) has issued a record $1.03 million fine to poultry processor Allen Family Foods.

MOSH inspected the company’s facility in Hurlock after an employee suffered a serious hand injury reaching beneath an unguarded conveyor belt.

State officials say Allen has ignored warnings to improve a dangerous workplace for more than a decade.

Allen Family Foods has been inspected 16 times at two locations in Maryland since 1998. Seven inspections were after incidents, and MOSH issued a total of 192 violations.

Other incidents have included cuts on employees’ hands and arms. Among previous citations against Allen were ones for lack of safety training.

Allen VP of human resources Tracy Morris said, “The citation in this case is not an accurate reflection of our safety record. Rather, we think it is the result of MOSH’s adoption of a more aggressive enforcement policy.”

The company plans to contest the fines.

The million-dollar fine is the result of 51 violations, including one categorized as egregious and 15 as willful.

It’s the largest MOSH fine in Maryland history.

NDK Crystals has 15 business days to decide whether to contest the fines.

The explosion at the company’s crystal manufacturing facility took the life of a truck driver parked at a nearby service station.

OSHA says NDK knowingly operated high pressure vessels even after being warned of the potential for catastrophic failure due to fabrication defects.

NDK received seven willful OSHA violations, one for each of the seven high pressure vessels in operation.

OSHA also issued five serious violations for failing to:

• evaluate the building for a catastrophic event
• have an emergency evacuation program
• implement a hazard communication program
• provide PPE, and
• provide training certification.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is also investigating the explosion to find its root causes.

The cries for less government have become more frequent these days, including in reader comments on this website when OSHA ramps up enforcement or rulemaking. One frequent argument is that OSHA’s regulations hurt the U.S. economy.

A recent article in the Idaho Statesman by an economist takes a look at the question: Would we be better off if we got rid of “job-killing OSHA?”

Economist Ed Lotterman sums up the situation this way: We don’t want people to be killed at work. But many people are willing to take certain risks in their personal lives every day. And companies often don’t have difficulty finding people willing to do dangerous jobs.

Therefore, should government intrude into the private agreement between employer and employee?

Lotterman suggests an answer to his own question. First, he admits that OSHA regulations raise the cost of labor, at least somewhat. That could cause some companies to hire fewer workers.

The costs to business vary greatly, according to Lotterman, and are smaller than many people think.

For Lotterman, the question then becomes, what is the value of lives saved and injuries avoided relative to the cost of regulation?

While it’s difficult for most to put a price on human life, Lotterman suggests it is neither small nor infinitely large.

Coming up with the exact figure may be difficult, but Lotterman says society clearly is better off if a life is saved for every $10,000 spent on workplace safety. However, should that amount rise to $10 billion per life, we would be worse off.

But, what about the free-market argument that it’s up to employees to decide whether the risks involved with a particular job are worth the offered wages? If it becomes difficult for employers to hire workers to do dangerous jobs, they either have to raise wages or reduce the risks.

Lotterman says there’s one problem with that viewpoint: an information gap. Many employees don’t have accurate information about the risks involved. With bad or incomplete information, they can’t make reasoned decisions when comparing risks to wages.

Lotterman concludes that the free market doesn’t lead to “a social optimum.” He says government action may make things better.

For those who think, “OSHA is out of control,” Lotterman offers these thoughts. He’s not saying that everything the agency has done in the past 40 years has made total sense. Example: He doubts requiring dairy farms to post signs that manure may make floors slippery has generated any “net benefit for society.”

On the other hand, Lotterman cites shoring requirements for trench walls as a worthwhile OSHA regulation. Requiring trench walls or boxes has greatly reduced the number of construction worker deaths each year, and that’s worth the cost to business, according to Lotterman.

And he concludes that, no matter which candidates are elected to office, OSHA isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Is the new leadership at OSHA going too far? Where do you draw the line between good OSHA regulation and bad? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below.

Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) is the sponsor of S.B. 3257, which would restore funding to OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and mandate that it continue.

A co-measure sponsored by Enzi would restore $3.1 million of funding to VPP. The funding measure has passed out of committee to the entire Senate. S.B. 3257 remains in committee.

The VPP encourages companies to go above and beyond basic OSHA regulations by conducting risk assessments, mitigating hazards and reducing employee injuries. Worker involvement is an integral part of the program.

More than 2,300 companies participate in VPP.

However, it’s not just current OSHA leadership that has its doubts about VPP.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last year concluded that OSHA lacked controls to assure companies maintain the criteria to qualify for the program.

The GAO said as a result, some facilities that no longer met the requirements remained in the program.

But that doesn’t mean the entire program isn’t working, either.

VPP participant Westar Energy of Topeka, KS, has reduced its workers’ comp losses because the program requires a company to log a total case incident rate that’s 50% below the national average for its industry.

What do you think is the right balance for OSHA to maintain between enforcement and employer assistance programs? What should happen to VPP, especially given the GAO report? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

VT Halter Marine, a shipbuilder, faces $1.32 million in fines in connection with a November 2009 explosion and fire in Escatawpa, MS, that killed two workers and seriously injured two others. The two injured workers both received third-degree burns.

OSHA cited the company for 17 willful violations, including failure to:

• inspect and test a confined space before entry
• prevent entry into confined spaces where the concentration of flammable vapors exceed the prescribed limits, and
• use explosion-proof lighting in a hazardous location.

VT Halter also faces 11 serious violations, including lack of machine guarding and use of defective electrical equipment.

The company has 15 days to decide whether to contest the fines.

The explosion happened aboard a tugboat as a crew was cleaning and prepping a tank for painting.

“Unscrupulous employers often consider it more cost effective to pay the minimal OSHA penalty and continue to operate an unsafe workplace than to correct the underlying health and safety problem. The current penalties do not provide an adequate deterrent.”

Those words came from OSHA administrator David Michaels in his testimony in favor of the Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA).

The bill would include public employers under OSHA and increase whistleblower protections.

But the major attention has been paid to the parts of the measure that would increase OSHA fines. The bill would:

• increase the maximum penalty for knowingly violating a rule that results in the death of an employee to 10 years in prison
• increase penalties for willful or repeat violations that involve a fatality to as much as $250,000, and
• create automatic increases in fine amounts by tying them to inflation.

In his testimony before a U.S. House subcommittee, Michaels pointed out that the average OSHA fine is about $1,000. The median fine for cases in which a worker was killed is about $5,900.

Michaels went on to point out that other federal agencies have the ability to issue much larger fines for infractions that don’t include human death. For example, the Department of Agriculture can impose a $130,000 fine on milk processors for willful violations of the Fluid Milk Promotion Act. TV and radio stations can be fined $325,000 for indecent language. The EPA can issue $270,000 fines for Clean Air Act violations.

Michaels also supports PAWA’s provision to increase the number of criminal prosecutions for workplace deaths and serious injuries.

What do you think about Michaels’ assertion that OSHA penalties are too low to matter to most businesses? Should the penalties for the most egregious violations, those that result in serious injury or death, be significantly increased? What about prison time for company managers when a worker is killed on the job? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below.

In the first year of the Obama administration, OSHA was busy handing out fines the likes of which hadn’t been seen for eight years. Here’s our rundown of 10 significant fines from the last 12 months, and what they mean for businesses:

1. OSHA issues largest fine ever: $87.4 million to BP. This fine demonstrates OSHA’s intent to check up on companies once they’ve made serious safety mistakes. The agency evaluated BP’s progress after the 2005 fire and explosion that killed 15 people and injured 170 more at its Texas City, TX refinery. OSHA issued 270 “notifications of failure to abate” and identified 439 new willful violations at the plant.
2. Two executives face prison time and huge fines in deaths of five workers. Phillipe Goutagny and James Thompson, executives with RPI Coating, each face 2.5 years in prison and a fine up to $1.25 million if convicted. On Oct. 2, 2007, vapor from a solvent ignited inside a tunnel at a hydroelectric plant in Colorado. Workers survived the blast but were overcome by smoke and fumes and died of asphyxiation. OSHA says it will work more closely with the Justice Department in cases like these to bring criminal charges against executives with penalties that include prison time.
3. OSHA wastes no time in using new per-employee citations, issues $1.2 million fine. G.S. Robbins & Co. of St. Louis, MO, was hit with 21 egregious willful citations for hazardous chemical handling. Each citation was on a per-instance basis. Even during this period of difficult economic recovery, OSHA won’t hesitate to use per-instance, per-employee fines to hike total fine amounts. This wasn’t the only instance in which OSHA used per-instance citations in 2009 (see item #7 below).
4. Company hit with $1.14 million fine following employee complaint. Are the big fines relegated only to incidents involving deaths or multiple serious injuries? Hardly. OSHA began a December 2008 inspection at Milk Specialties in Whitehall, WI, in response to an employee complaint. Willful citations were issued for the employer’s failure to comply with OSHA’s confined space and lockout/tagout regulations. OSHA is taking employee complaints seriously.
5. After two similar incidents, owner and manager go to jail. ANC Roofing of Santa Rosa, CA, owner Kenneth Alton pleaded no contest to failing to protect employees from a hazard. He was sentenced to nine months in jail and a $248,000 fine. Supervisor Robert McAfee pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor violation and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. On May 11, 2006, an ANC employee backed into an unguarded skylight and fell 21 feet to his death. Four months later, another ANC employee suffered major head trauma when he fell 19 feet from an unprotected skylight.
6. OSHA fines Wal-Mart $7,000 for worker trampling incident. A Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death by a crowd of 2,000 shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving in 2008. OSHA said Wal-Mart should have recognized that its employees were exposed to being crushed by the crowd based on previous experience. Wal-Mart fought the fine. OSHA used the General Duty Clause to issue the fine and has said it will use the GDC in similar situations where safety was compromised but a specific regulation wasn’t violated.
7. Company faces $1.09 million OSHA fine for 202 willful violations. OSHA didn’t really need anyone’s permission to start issuing per-instance fines (see item #3 above), but it got the go-ahead in the form of a decision from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC). The appeals panel ruled OSHA properly cited Smalis Painting Co. on a per-employee basis for violations of the lead-in-construction regulations, in connection with a project near Pittsburgh, PA. OSHA monitored six Smalis employees for lead exposure. Based on that data, OSHA issued violations for all employees who would have been exposed to the same hazards.
8. OSHA is getting companies to agree to implement safety and health improvements above what’s required by regulations. A-1 Excavating of Bloomer, WI, agreed to make numerous changes in its work processes in exchange for lowering fines from almost $900,000 to $470,000. A-1 has to hire a full-time safety director, develop and implement site-specific safety and health plans for all major projects, identify all job sites to OSHA before work begins for the next three years, reduce the salary of job superintendents and project managers who fail to comply with OSHA requirements, and retain a third-party safety consultant.
9. Cintas agrees to pay $3 million in fines and to comply with other conditions. In some cases, it hasn’t been an either-or situation between fines and strict safety improvements. After a worker was killed when he fell onto an unguarded conveyor and was dragged into a 300-degree industrial dryer, Cintas agreed to the huge fine and to retain a team of independent experts to develop permanent fixes and review interim controls. Cintas also agreed to hire additional safety staff, conduct more frequent internal safety inspections, and establish new systems to examine employee complaints.
10. A construction company agrees to pay $750,000 in fines and cut the pay of unsafe supervisors. Broadway Concrete of New York, NY, agreed to reduce the salaries of senior job superintendents who failed to comply with job safety practices. Broadway also agreed to hire a full-time corporate safety director, develop a new corporate safety plan, and provide OSHA with information on major projects and access to all job sites for the next four years.

What do you think of OSHA’s recent enforcement tactics? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

VPP’s budget would decrease 4.1%. Simultaneously, OSHA’s enforcement budget would go up 4.5%, including the hiring of 25 new inspectors.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said the administration is working to identify funding for VPP outside of the government.

Solis said, with scarce resources, OSHA has decided to redirect funds to enforcement, targeting companies that disregard workplace safety and allow workers to die.

Besides the new inspectors, OSHA will also shift 35 employees from its compliance assistance directorate to its enforcement department.

OSHA hopes to conduct 6,250 more inspections as the result of new and transferred employees.

OSHA administrator David Michaels noted that VPP companies are doing the right thing regarding worker safety. He said OSHA needs focus on employers who don’t understand the importance of protecting workers.

What do you think of OSHA’s decision to redirect its funds from assistance to compliance? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

It all started with the Las Vegas Sun’s series of articles after several construction workers died on big building projects along the city’s infamous strip. The Sun won a Pulitzer journalism prize for its reporting.

Judges gave the Public Service award to the Sun, “for the exposure of the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip amid lax enforcement of regulations, leading to changes in policy and improved safety conditions.”

Now a West Virginia newspaper has leveled criticism at OSHA for the number of inspectors that cover the state in the wake of an employee death at a DuPont plant.

Carl Fish died one day after being exposed to phosgene from a leaking transfer hose at the plant in Bell, WV.

In the Sustained Outrage blog for The Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward Jr. writes, “12 OSHA officers must cover the entire state, inspecting power plants, steel mills, logging operations and all other workplaces except coal mines. Only nine of those 12 are full-time inspectors. It would take the OSHA office in Charleston nearly 100 years to inspect every workplace” in West Virginia.

Ward notes the last time the DuPont plant was inspected was five years ago.

Earlier this month, KCET-TV in California, through its So-Cal Connected program, aired a report based on an investigation of Cal-OSHA.

“Many of the inspectors who enforce California’s worker safety laws say the system is strained if not broken,” KCET’s report said. Specifically, the investigation calls into question the practice of significantly reducing the OSHA fines paid by companies found to be in violation of safety regulations.

The Sun’s report caught the attention of federal OSHA. Among its priorities is to check on the 26 state workplace safety agencies.

Do you agree with the media reporting of the last few years that state and federal OSHA programs are understaffed and largely ineffective? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

You can also take our poll on OSHA inspectors on our home page.

Criminal prosecution of companies where safety violations cause serious injuries or fatalities are rare in the U.S. With that in mind, it’s interesting to note how such cases are handled in another democracy.

In the last seven years, more than 70 plea bargain deals have been cut in Queensland, Australia, between companies with serious workplace accidents and the state government.

The Queensland state government recently settled with an electrical contractor, Stowe Australia. One of its workers was left a paraplegic after a 2007 industrial incident. The worker was helping unload an almost 900-pound switchboard when the equipment fell on him, causing severe spinal injuries.

In exchange for dropping criminal charges, Stowe agreed to make a formal statement of regret, improve its health and safety standards, publish an article on the incident, and provide funding to the Spinal Injuries Association.

For comparison, the trucking company that was transporting the switchboard was prosecuted in court and fined $45,000.

In another case, Sea World was initially prosecuted for a workplace injury case on charges that carried a maximum penalty of two years in prison and more than $1 million in fines. The government withdrew the criminal charges. In exchange, Sea World promised to spend almost $300,000 on safety improvements.

A spokesman for the government defended the settlements, saying they “require the employer to carry out a range of safety measures that extend well beyond the original breach. They are only entered into when the benefits for workers, the industry and the community can be clearly shown.”

The spokesman said the settlements pave the way for “long-lasting and more wide-ranging safety changes.” The government totals the number of safety enhancements at companies due to these settlements at more than $17 million.

What do you think about this method of holding companies responsible for serious injuries and fatalities? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

The appropriations bill lists two types of small businesses where OSHA can’t perform inspections.

At businesses with ten or fewer employees at all times during the last 12 months that are in low-hazard industries, OSHA can’t perform programmed safety inspections. However, OSHA can still inspect these employers if there is an employee complaint, an imminent danger, or if there is an incident causing one fatality or hospitalization of two or more workers. A list of the exempted low-hazard industries is here on OSHA’s Web site.

Also, small farms are exempt from all OSHA inspections if they had ten employees or fewer at all times during the last 12 months and if they didn’t have a temporary labor camp during the same period.

That’s the warning from the new head of OSHA, David Michaels.

In a speech to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Michaels said, while creating green jobs is great, he’s concerned that “employers who race into this green economy without paying attention to worker safety will blunder into many preventable injuries and deaths.”

Michaels warns that when he hears:

• weatherization and renovation, OSHA sees exposure to lead and asbestos
• insulation, OSHA thinks exposure to toxic materials like isocyanates
• rooftop solar power, OSHA sees fall hazards, and
• wind energy, OSHA worries about lockout hazards.

For advice on keeping green jobs safe, click here.

Some of the companies didn’t disclose previous violations as required. Now the Massachusetts Highway Division is demanding written explanations from at least 7 companies awarded contracts as to why they didn’t reveal the violations on forms they submitted to obtain bidding approval for state projects.

The situation came to light after a review by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University.

Example: Liddell Brothers of Halifax, MA, received a $2.6 million stimulus contract. OSHA had cited the company four separate times since 2007 for failing to provide cave-in protection for workers in trenches. Liddell paid $46,580 in OSHA fines.

Former OSHA administrator Charles Jeffress said companies with repeat or willful safety violations should not get state contracts. In 2007, Liddell was issued a willful violation.

Liddell attorney Robert Lizza said in an e-mail that because the company immediately abated the hazards, paid its fines and the issue didn’t progress to a formal proceeding, as stated in the application form, Liddell didn’t disclose the violations.

The key question on the form asks contractors to report “any civil, criminal, or administrative proceedings involving public contracts, safety, environmental laws, or regulations” for the previous 3 years.

The Highway Division’s administrator said it doesn’t have enough staff to verify the accuracy of the information provided by contractors. The agency has threatened to refer the contractors in question to the state attorney general’s office for making false claims on the applications.

What do you think? Should contractors be barred from receiving government contracts if they have been issued a willful safety citation in the previous 3 years? Does abatement wipe the slate clean? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Inspector General has announced its audit targets for 2010. On the list, “Impact of OSHA’s Penalty Reductions.”

OSHA’s penalty structure is designed to provide companies with an incentive to correct violations.

Reductions in fines can come from several sources. An inspector can recommend discounts to the original fine amount. OSHA supervisors, including area directors, regional administrators and Department of Labor attorneys can further reduce the size of a penalty, which are often significantly less than statutory maximums.

Stated audit objectives include determining whether penalty reductions encouraged companies to correct violations.

No word on exactly when the audit will be completed.

Earlier this year, acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab said OSHA’s current penalty structure wasn’t enough of a disincentive to force some companies to address safety hazards.

Do you think OSHA reduces its penalties too often? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

“Sixteen workers are killed a day in the United States because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers,” according to a new Web site.

The statement on the home page of 16deathsperday.com goes on to say, “Under existing laws, these employers get a slap on the wrist, or walk away scot-free. Meanwhile, workers who blow the whistle face threats and retaliation at the workplace.”

A five-minute video profiles two workplace fatalities where companies paid relatively small fines and didn’t face criminal prosecution.

The group’s message: Companies would rather pay low OSHA fines rather than spend more money on worker safety.

To change that, the Web site endorses passage of the Protecting America’s Workers Act. That bill would:

• allow OSHA to pursue criminal charges against a company for an employee’s death, including fines and up to 10 years in prison for owners and managers. Criminal penalties for serious bodily injury to an employee could include up to five years in prison.
• increase the civil penalty for an employee death from $50,000 to $250,000, with a minimum $25,000 fine for companies with 25 or fewer employees
• raise the maximum fines for willful and repeat citations to $120,000, and
• increase OSHA fines every four years for inflation.

What do you think of 16deathsperday.com’s message? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Labor Department officials and officials from other states have descended on Nevada to scrutinize how it investigates workplace accidents.

The Sun ran a series of articles last year — for which it won a Pulitzer Prize — detailing serious problems with worker safety in Nevada. During an 18-month stretch, 12 construction workers were killed on the Las Vegas Strip.

Acting OSHA head Jordan Barab had warned state officials that the feds planned to intensify their monitoring of state plans.

OSHA’s only enforcement tool is complete takeover of a state agency, something it’s never done. But OSHA observers say this intervention is the most dramatic in a state plan since 1991, when the feds strongly considered taking over North Carolina’s state plan.

A report is expected to be issued in about a month.

OSHA’s intent, announced recently as part of a release about a new national emphasis program, is to spend the next year hitting as many facilities as possible. OSHA calls it a new approach for compliance officers: Ask a series of tough questions and quickly move on to the next facility.

But don’t mistake “quick” for “easy.”  The goal is to verify that written and implemented PSM programs are consistent.

And acting OSHA head Jordan Barab has made it clear that compliance with PSM standards is a top priority.

Michaels, a professor at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, detailed his views in Congressional testimony two years ago.

To paraphrase, he saw the agency as weak, unmotivated, understaffed, heavily impeded and generally ineffective.

Here are a few excerpts, which clearly signal his views on recordkeeping, ergonomics, rulemaking and the General Duty Clause, among other topics:

• “Preventable work related injuries and illnesses … are unacceptably high. Furthermore, the true incidence of these conditions is far higher than reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
• OSHA enforcement does not appear to be effective in further reducing injury rates. …  Statistical analyses indicate that (any reported) decrease can be attributable to changes in OSHA recordkeeping rules.
• “For most hazardous chemicals, OSHA’s standards are either inadequate or totally absent. One could write a book about the hazards that OSHA has failed to regulate adequately.”
• “The primary blame (for OSHA’s failure to issue appropriate health standards) rests in a system that makes OSHA standard setting inordinately difficult and resource-intensive.”
• “OSHA has abandoned the general duty clause. It is time for the agency to start using it again.”
• “Ergonomic injuries cost employers $15-20 billion annually in workers’ compensation costs alone, yet this number one workplace safety and health problem is not even mentioned on OSHA’s most recent regulatory agenda.”
• “OSHA doesn’t have the staff to work on more than one or two standards at a time, and … each standard takes years to complete. Unless things change radically, only a handful of the thousands of chemicals in daily use in American workplaces will ever be the subject of an OSHA standard.”

There’s no question that OSHA will change radically if Michaels is approved by the Senate and moves his agenda forward — an aggressive approach that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and interim OSHA head Jordan Barab appear to have already set in motion.

Do you expect OSHA to make your job tougher in the coming years? Tell us what you think in the Comment Box below.

And the case hasn’t been settled.

The fact that the appeal is dragging on is significant.  But how it turns out may be even more significant.

When the fine was announced, company CEO John Sheptor said he hoped the whole thing would be settled “in a few weeks,” according to an article in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

In the same article, plantiffs lawyer Mark Tate explains why that hasn’t happened: “(OSHA’s) pressing its case as doggedly as private lawyers would. Proposed OSHA fines used to get settled for pennies on the dollar. But not this time.”

This chart, posted by probublica.org, lends credence to the “pennies on the dollar” comment. Many of OSHA’s largest proposed fines eventually withered into small fractions of their original figures.

Does this mean OSHA is now overreaching? Or is developing a bite that matches its bark long overdue? Let us know what you think in the Comment Box below.

A Wall Street Journal article discusses the backgrounds of some of the selections.

President Obama’s latest choice, Joseph Main to oversee the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), continues a strong trend toward choosing labor over management and increased regulation over the Bush administration’s more hands-off approach.

Main was for many years a union official and mine-safety advocate. He began his career working in coal mines.

If approved, he’ll join Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who had a well-documented pro-union background, and temporary OSHA head Jordan Barab, who previously worked for the AFL-CIO and who was fiercely critical of Bush’s labor policies.

In contrast, previous Labor Secretary Elaine Chao worked for Citicorp and BankAmerica and was considered anti-regulation and a staunch ally of business. Previous OSHA head Edwin Foulke Jr. was a management-side labor lawyer.

Main would be the first confirmed head of MSHA since 2004. Richard Stickler, who filled the post under President Bush, was a controversial former Bethlehem Steel executive who was installed as a recess appointment after failing to win approval from the Senate.

Mining-association groups say they expect Main, if approved, to be tough. But, they add, they know him and can work with him.

He may have his work cut out for him. Public Citizen, a consumer-advocacy group, says the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission has a backlog of 13,000 mine-safety disputes.

What do you expect from President Obama’s nominees? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Explosions at the plant killed 14 people and injured many more.

Interviews conducted by OSHA with plant workers uncovered the alleged lack of training, according to The Savannah Morning News.

OSHA is seeking $8.8 million in fines for alleged safety violations at two Imperial plants. Imperial is appealing.

About 40 workers said they didn’t receive training on how to get out of the building in an emergency. Only about 30 people said they were shown how to leave.

Just 5 people ever recalled a fire drill at the plant.

Former corporate safety manager Michael Lastie said in a sworn statement that the company lacked a document that “clearly spelled out … the roles and responsibilities of the first responder team.”

Creating such a document was a recommendation made to the company after a 2004 safety evaluation.

Imperial also faces lawsuits from victims’ families.

OSHA is preparing a National Emphasis Program (NEP) on recordkeeping. Its targets:

• Companies in high-injury industries with low injury rates. OSHA will check to see that records match reality.
• Incentive programs that encourage employees not to report injuries. Example: The unit with the lowest injury rate for the quarter will win prizes or get a special financial reward.
• Disincentives to report injuries. Example: Workers who report injuries are disciplined or fired.

Speaking at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Safety 2009 conference in San Antonio, acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab said the agency isn’t opposed to incentive programs, as long as the incentives are for proactive measures.

Barab said he’s somewhat skeptical of behavioral programs that always blame workers for incidents and injuries.

In an interview with SafetyNewsAlert.com after his speech, Barab pointed to the 2005 BP Texas City, TX, disaster in which 15 employees were killed and 170 were injured in an explosion. Barab said the first thing BP did was to fire a bunch of workers “when that was only the tip of the iceberg,” according to an investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

On another topic, Barab said OSHA isn’t eliminating the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). However, he added that the days of OSHA forming alliances with various industry groups instead of enacting new or revising existing standards are over.

When will OSHA have a permanent administrator? Barab said at this point, it looks like it will be fall at the earliest. However, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has told Barab not to wait. When Barab took the position as interim head of OSHA, Solis told him to go full speed ahead on her workplace safety agenda, which includes vigorous enforcement and enactment of new standards. Barab will assume the No. 2 position at OSHA once a permanent administrator is confirmed.

Barab said OSHA will react quickly to injury trends, such as moving inspectors to Texas, starting in July, to counter the high number of construction fatalities in the state (see our earlier story here). “A SWAT team of OSHA inspectors will fan out over Texas,” Barab said, to visit sites in locales where construction fatalities and injuries have been a particular problem.

Between October 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009, OSHA has conducted 24,075 inspections, according to data released at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ Safety 2009 conference. At that rate, OSHA should match the number of inspections performed in 2008: 38,450.

So far in the 2009 fiscal year, 63% of inspections have been the result of OSHA programs that target industries or facilities with high incident rates.

The rest, 37% are due to fatalities, injuries or an employee complaint.

Six out of ten inspections have been in the construction industry.

In 2008, 121 inspections resulted in fines of more than $100,000. From Oct. 1, 2008 through June 26, 2009, there have been 72 six-figure or larger fines.

Sometimes, OSHA inspectors don’t find any problems. That’s been the case 22% of the time so far in FY ‘09.

OSHA finds an average of 3.1 violations per inspection. Of those, it classifies 81% in categories that mean higher fines for companies: serious, willful, repeat and failure to abate.

For the last eight years, OSHA has de-emphasized recordkeeping inspections. That’s about to change.

OSHA is preparing a National Emphasis Program (NEP) on recordkeeping. Its targets:

• Companies in high-injury industries with low injury rates. OSHA will check to see that records match reality.
• Incentive programs that encourage employees not to report injuries. Example: The unit with the lowest injury rate for the quarter will win prizes or get a special financial reward.
• Disincentives to report injuries. Example: Workers who report injuries are disciplined or fired.

Speaking at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Safety 2009 conference in San Antonio, acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab said the agency isn’t opposed to incentive programs, as long as the incentives are for proactive measures.

Barab said he’s somewhat skeptical of behavioral programs that always blame workers for incidents and injuries.

In an interview with SafetyNewsAlert.com after his speech, Barab pointed to the 2005 BP Texas City, TX, disaster in which 15 employees were killed and 170 were injured in an explosion. Barab said the first thing BP did was to fire a bunch of workers “when that was only the tip of the iceberg,” according to an investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

On another topic, Barab said OSHA isn’t eliminating the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). However, he added that the days of OSHA forming alliances with various industry groups instead of enacting new or revising existing standards are over.

When will OSHA have a permanent administrator? Barab said at this point, it looks like it will be fall at the earliest. However, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has told Barab not to wait. When Barab took the position as interim head of OSHA, Solis told him to go full speed ahead on her workplace safety agenda, which includes vigorous enforcement and enactment of new standards. Barab will assume the No. 2 position at OSHA once a permanent administrator is confirmed.

Barab said OSHA will react quickly to injury trends, such as moving inspectors to Texas, starting in July, to counter the high number of construction fatalities in the state (see our earlier story here). “A SWAT team of OSHA inspectors will fan out over Texas,” Barab said, to visit sites in locales where construction fatalities and injuries have been a particular problem.

Check back with SafetyNewsAlert.com often this week for updates from the ASSE Safety 2009 conference.

At the American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Safety 2009 conference, Jordan Barab noted that the last time OSHA fines were restructured was in 1990.

Right now, the average fine for a serious violation is between $900 and $1,000. Barab says that’s not enough of a disincentive to force companies to address safety hazards.

It would be up to Congress to change OSHA’s penalty structure, and there is a bill introduced to do just that.

Ultimately, Barab says he’d like OSHA fines to be comparable to those EPA is able to issue for environmental violations.

He’d also like Congress to make it easier for OSHA to bring criminal penalties for egregious violations.

Check back with SafetyNewsAlert.com all this week for news from ASSE’s Safety 2009 conference.

“Make no mistake about it: The Department of Labor (DOL) is back in the enforcement business,” Solis told an audience of safety professionals in San Antonio, TX, attending Safety 2009.

She acknowledges that in these difficult economic times it’s more difficult for safety professionals to sell employee safety and health to their companies. For that reason, Solis said the agency wants to work with more companies to help them provide safer workplaces so that mothers and fathers can return home, uninjured, to their children each day.

But the current recession isn’t stopping OSHA and its parent department, DOL, from stepping up enforcement.

Solis noted that OSHA’s 2010 budget request calls for 130 more inspectors. In comments to reporters after her speech, Solis said, “I’d like to have more [inspectors], but we’re not in that position,” due to the economy.

The Secretary was asked about the lack of a permanent administrator for OSHA. Jordan Barab is the acting administrator and will assume the No. 2 position at the agency once a permanent head is confirmed. Solis expressed frustration with the U.S. Senate confirmation process. She noted that there are other nominees to DOL positions who have been in the pipeline for four months without being confirmed. She said it was important to have a new leader of OSHA, and that’s why Barab was appointed interim administrator, which doesn’t require Senate confirmation.

Solis said she hasn’t yet read the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found deficiencies with OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program. She said she agrees with the concerns expressed by the GAO and by members of the House and Senate regarding OSHA’s enforcement capabilities.

The Secretary also took the opportunity during her speech in front of thousands of safety professionals in San Antonio to announce a new initiative to decrease construction fatalities and injuries in Texas. Since 2007, there have been 145 construction fatalities in Texas, a number Solis called “intolerable.”

Beginning in July, OSHA will increase the number of inspectors in Texas for a concentrated effort aimed at construction sites. If an inspector sees scaffold, fall, trenching or other hazards, they’re empowered to launch an immediate investigation.

Check back with SafetyNewsAlert.com often this week for updates from the ASSE Safety 2009 conference.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that OSHA’s internal controls aren’t sufficient to ensure that only qualified worksites participate in VPP.

From January 2003 to August 2008, 30 VPP sites had fatalities. The GAO found that some sites had safety and health violations related to the fatalities and remained in the VPP despite no longer meeting the definition of an exemplary workplace.

OSHA’s response to the GAO report came swiftly. It said it’s committed to fixing any problems with the program.

But the headline OSHA put on its own press release tells the real story: “OSHA begins evaluation of Voluntary Protection Program.”

The release goes on to say that OSHA’s evaluation will “determine how the agency should best allocate its resources among cooperative programs, enforcement and the agency’s other activities.”

VPP and its related Alliance Program will go under the microscope “to determine their effectiveness as well as review the programs’ roles in helping the agency promote the safety and health of America’s workers.”

Acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab noted that the agency hadn’t acted on a 2004 GAO report that suggested an evaluation of VPP’s effectiveness.

The Obama administration has made no secret of wanting to increase OSHA enforcement. It’s already allocated more funding to do that. One more way the administration could devote more money to enforcement: Reallocate money from cooperative programs such as VPP to inspections.

You can download the GAO’s report here.

The No. 1 goal for Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE): investigating work-related accidents and illnesses and taking enforcement action to prevent harm and secure justice where appropriate.

Other HSE priorities:

• Encourage strong leadership in championing the importance of health and safety in the workplace
• Reinforce the promotion of worker involvement and consultation in health and safety matters, and
• Identify which activities deliver a significant reduction in the rate and number of deaths and accidents.

The goals were established following a survey of 1,000 British workers and 200 business owners and senior managers. Some survey findings:

• 36% of business leaders agree that the “stick” as opposed to the “carrot” is the most effective way to improve health and safety
• 26% of owners and managers admit their companies will face pressure to cut their health and safety budgets in the recession
• 60% of business leaders feel safe in their workplace, compared to just 35% of employees, and
• 22% of workers in small businesses fear that their employer will cut health and safety corners in the recession, compared to just 16% in large organizations.

The HSE says one reason it’s launching its program is because of fears that workplace safety and health will take a backseat during the current recession.

Click here to read more about Britain’s new workplace safety and health strategy.

How is the recession impacting your company’s safety plan? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

No one should really be surprised that OSHA under the Obama administration is stepping up enforcement.

But for anyone who had any doubts, Barab is making it pretty plain.

In a recent speech to the Maritime Advisory Committee, Barab noted the funding increase OSHA has already received to boost enforcement.

He capped off the budgetary summary by saying, “I want to be absolutely clear: OSHA is back in the business of standards and enforcement.”

Barab also noted that the funding increases aren’t over. The fiscal year 2010 budget proposes another $50 million increase for the agency.

OSHA plans to use part of that increase to hire 200 more employees: 130 more inspectors, 25 more investigators assigned specifically to whistleblower cases and 20 more staff who will help develop safety and health standards.

A transcript of Barab’s speech is here.

The state recently shut down five farm labor contractors for violations of heat illness prevention regulations.

Four contractors provided no shade for workers exposed to temperatures over 100 degrees, and one had less than a single gallon of water for 15 employees working in temperatures as high as 116 degrees.

The state uses the Order to Prohibit Use (OPU) to shut down employers when employees are exposed to an immediate hazard. The employers’ operations are stopped until they can prove their ability to safeguard workers.

The OPU was first used last year against Merced Farm Labor following the death of Maria Vasquez Jimenez who had been working 9 hours in a vineyard with little water and no shade.

Already this year, California has conducted over 850 heat inspections and issued more than 250 citations for violations of the heat illness prevention standards.

More information about heat illness prevention and training materials are available here.

The agency is redirecting funding from its Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) to free up more resources for enforcement in the tight economy.

OSHA doesn’t have to receive tons more federal funding to ramp up inspections. All it has to do is shift money away from the “helpful” programs established during the Bush administration and toward enforcement.

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab said, “We need to better utilize the resources that we already have. In order to direct more of OSHA’s existing resources into enforcement and to provide time to address concerns in an upcoming GAO Report on the efficacy of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program, I have informed the field staff that we will suspend the previous administration’s practice of establishing goals for new Voluntary Protection Program sites and Alliances.”

What else is OSHA planning to do to beef up enforcement?

OSHA’s acting administrator Jordan Barab plans to work with the Justice Department on increasing prosecution of employers that repeatedly violate safety laws. Watch for more prison sentences for owners and managers who repeatedly flaunt safety regulations.

Barab also plans to replace the failed Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP) with a new Severe Violators Inspection Program. The EEP was recently criticized in an inspector general’s report which said it failed to adequately identify and inspect major companies with repeat violations.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are pushing legislation to increase the amounts of OSHA fines and prison sentences for owners and managers in workplace fatality cases.