OSHA Penalty Increases Take Effect; Annual Summary Posting and Reporting Deadlines Are Near

28 January 2019 Labor & Employment Law Perspectives Blog
Author(s): Scott T. Allen

On January 23, 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) increased the maximum civil penalties that employers can receive for health and safety violations by 2.5 percent to account for inflation.

Below is a chart indicating the maximum penalty for each type of OSHA violation:

Type of Violation Penalty
Serious
Other-Than-Serious
Posting Requirements
$13,260 per violation
Failure to Abate $13,260 per day beyond the abatement date
Willful or Repeated $132,598 per violation

 

Under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, which hiked civil penalties across federal agencies and required that fines be adjusted annually to keep up with inflation, OSHA penalties will continue to increase in January each year. This law led to a massive 78 percent increase in maximum OSHA fines that took effect in August 2016. In 2015, the maximum penalty for a “Serious” OSHA violation was $7,000, and this amount has nearly doubled since then. These penalty increases are also effective in states like California and Michigan that operate their own occupational safety and health agencies, which must adopt maximum penalties that are at least as high as federal OSHA levels.

Meanwhile, it is important to remember that employers must comply with upcoming OSHA posting and reporting deadlines. (OSHA is one of the federal agencies that was unaffected by the partial government shutdown and is fully funded through September 2019.)

By February 1, 2019, all employers required to keep OSHA 300 Logs must post a copy of the annual “300A Summary” of workplace injury and illness data for 2018, and leave the 300A Summary posted at the workplace through April 30, 2019. In addition, employers with 250 or more employees at any “establishment” (usually a single facility or location) must electronically submit their 300A Summaries to OSHA by March 2, 2019.

Failure to timely post or submit 300A Summaries now carry potential penalties of $13,260, like other OSHA recordkeeping violations, and employers should make sure to comply with these requirements on time.

This blog is made available by Foley & Lardner LLP (“Foley” or “the Firm”) for informational purposes only. It is not meant to convey the Firm’s legal position on behalf of any client, nor is it intended to convey specific legal advice. Any opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Foley & Lardner LLP, its partners, or its clients. Accordingly, do not act upon this information without seeking counsel from a licensed attorney. This blog is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Communicating with Foley through this website by email, blog post, or otherwise, does not create an attorney-client relationship for any legal matter. Therefore, any communication or material you transmit to Foley through this blog, whether by email, blog post or any other manner, will not be treated as confidential or proprietary. The information on this blog is published “AS IS” and is not guaranteed to be complete, accurate, and or up-to-date. Foley makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation or content of the site. Foley expressly disclaims all other guarantees, warranties, conditions and representations of any kind, either express or implied, whether arising under any statute, law, commercial use or otherwise, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. In no event shall Foley or any of its partners, officers, employees, agents or affiliates be liable, directly or indirectly, under any theory of law (contract, tort, negligence or otherwise), to you or anyone else, for any claims, losses or damages, direct, indirect special, incidental, punitive or consequential, resulting from or occasioned by the creation, use of or reliance on this site (including information and other content) or any third party websites or the information, resources or material accessed through any such websites. In some jurisdictions, the contents of this blog may be considered Attorney Advertising. If applicable, please note that prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Photographs are for dramatization purposes only and may include models. Likenesses do not necessarily imply current client, partnership or employee status.

Author(s)

Related Services