Safety & Health

On Dec. 19, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a final rule to revise existing language in the recordkeeping regulation to emphasize an employer’s responsibility to make and maintain accurate OSHA 300 Logs and all related incident reports.  The new rule drastically expands on the existing regulatory language and in some cases added new provisions.  While the newly published rule does make clear OSHA’s expectations involving the maintenance of injury and illness records, the true impetus for the rulemaking is to drastically expand the agency’s statute of limitation granted by the OSH Act. The OSH Act clearly states that “no citations may be issued after the expiration of six months following the occurrence of any violation.” However, this new rule will allow contractors to be cited for honest mistakes, or inaccuracies, related to recordkeeping dating back as far as five-and-a-half years.  OSHA’s justification is that an omission of an injury or illness from the OSHA 300 Log constitutes an ongoing occurrence until corrected during the five-year retention period under the recordkeeping regulation. 

Intensifying its effort to dissuade the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from interpreting its new recordkeeping regulations to restrict drug testing or safety incentive programs, AGC of America presses for a formal audience with the top OSHA official.

At the heart the controversy surrounding the new regulations are two provisions that merely state:

Court officials announced late last week that the AGC of America backed lawsuit to block the Obama administration’s misguided new silica rule will be heard in the D.C. Circuit Court.  AGC, via the Louisiana AGC, filed suit in the 5th Circuit earlier this month to block the measure arguing that the administration established a new standard that is beyond the technological limits of current dust removal equipment.  However, a number of other groups filed similar motions in other court circuits, forcing judicial officials to select a venue via random lottery.

The Bipartisan Budget Act removes a statutory exemption from penalties under certain statutes, including the Occupational Safety & Health Act, from inflation for civil penalties. Unlike other similar civil penalties in federal law, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) civil penalties have been explicitly exempted from inflation since they were created in 1990. Under the Budget Act, OSHA will now have to report on their adjustment in their annual financial statements and via the Government Accountability Office. The bill also allows the agency to use a “catch up” formula to make up to 150 percent adjustments in the penalty in the first year to meet current inflation levels. The Secretary could limit the increases if there’s a negative economic impact that outweighs benefits and any proposed increase in penalties would go through the formal notice and comment process.