OSHA Crackdown: Tougher Enforcement Aimed at Reducing Violations

Fall protection in the workplace has been required by Federal OSHA regulations since 1974, shortly after the Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed into law in 1970. Since then, the requirements for fall protection and the approach to fall safety have changed dramatically. Recently, some changes have been made to the approach to enforcement.

Fines

Fines have been an enforcement tool of OSHA for a long time. Companies found by OSHA to have violated regulations are required to pay steep penalties, and that is true for violations of fall protection standards. In fact, fall protection in construction is the most frequently cited OSHA violation based on data from 2017 and 2018, and those citations have come with fines in many cases.

What’s new in enforcement through fines is the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act. This Act, passed in 2015, requires agencies to adjust penalties with the rate of inflation. Based on this act, the top penalty for serious violations rose from $7,000 to $12,471. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations increased from $70,000 to $124,709. Since 2016, those fines have been adjusted to $13,494 and $134,937, respectively.

The force of the increased fines can be dramatic. In 2014, a Connecticut-based roofing company was fined nearly $300,000 for failure to provide necessary fall protection to workers. The fine included four willful violations totaling $280,000 and two serious violations totaling $14,000. With the current maximum fines, that same case would total $566,736 in fines.

The increase in fines and the method for adjusting the fines annually is intended to provide additional deterrent against failing to comply with fall protection standards.

Personal Accountability

Fines can be effective in enforcing compliance, but they are not always completely effective. One reason that fines can sometimes be ineffective is that they are brought against companies rather than individuals. While large fines can be damaging to a business, they don’t hold anyone personally accountable.

However, one 2015 violation led to a different outcome for a Florida-based framing contractor. In 2015, OSHA conducted an investigation when a worker fatally fell on a construction site. The investigation concluded that the company willfully violated workplace safety standards by failing to provide appropriate fall protection equipment to the workers.

This violation would have been subject to the penalty for willful violations, which at the time was a $70,000 fine. However, in this instance, OSHA pursued criminal charges against the owner of the framing company. Ultimately, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison, which he began serving February 26, 2020.

Criminal convictions for OSHA violations are uncommon, even in fatal incidents, but this 2015 case is part of an effort to increase deterrence. An arrangement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) places OSHA violations under the Environmental Crimes Section (ECS) of the DOJ’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division.

In the past, OSHA violations were rarely prosecuted because it can be difficult to prove criminal violation under the Act, and violations leading to the death of an employee were considered misdemeanor charges with maximum penalties of $10,000, six months in prison, or both. A later Act raised the maximum fine to $250,000, but the maximum prison sentence remained the same. Federal prosecutors typically chose to prosecute higher-penalty cases, so misdemeanor cases, such as OSHA fall protection violations, would be resolved with monetary penalties alone.

Now that OSHA violations can be prosecuted under the ECS, prosecutors are more likely to pursue charges. Now, health and safety violations can be prosecuted in conjunction with environmental safety violations, so penalties can be more significant. Additionally, federal prosecutors receive additional manpower for prosecuting cases through ECS attorneys.

Officials believe that these changes will bolster enforcement of OSHA fall protection requirements. As long as fall protection standards are the most frequently cited violations, fall protection will likely remain a point of focus for enforcement efforts. For information on how Rigid Lifelines can help you comply with fall protection requirements, you can contact the Regional Sales Manager for your location or a Technical Sales Support Specialist.