It’s been a busy year for all of us—including the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
In fiscal year 2019, OSHA conducted a whopping 33,401 inspections.
That’s over 1,000 more than in FY 2018—about a 4.1% increase, in fact. The number of OSHA inspections performed in the most recent year also exceeds the totals in 2017 and 2016.
At the same time, OSHA set a new record for the number of workers trained in a year: 1,392,611 in 2019. Overall, the number of people undergoing OSHA training on safety and health requirements has almost doubled since 2012.
This appears to be all happening concurrently with an increase in regulatory penalties. According to a December 13th article published in EHS Daily Advisor:
“OSHA’s practice of handing out six-figure penalties has continued into FY 2020, which began October 1. This week the agency announced a half-million dollars in proposed penalties for an employer it placed on its Severe Violator Enforcement Program list.
OSHA cited Dana Railcare, based in Wilmington, Delaware, for six serious and seven willful safety and health violations following a worker fatality at a site in Pittston, Pennsylvania. An employee became asphyxiated in May 2019, while servicing a railcar containing crude oil sludge. The railcar service provider faces $551,226 in proposed penalties.”The bottom line for businesses is that OSHA is ramping up enforcement, and the costs of noncompliance are bigger than ever.
Plus, with greater and greater numbers of workers undergoing federal training, culpability for dangerous environments is shifting even more to organizational leadership. You may be busy, but that’s no excuse for poor workplace health and safety outcomes.
Fortunately, developing an OSHA-ready program doesn’t need to take excessive time or resources. See how KPA makes it easy.
