As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the East Coast, we wanted to highlight some key sources of information for hurricane preparedness and response:

Employers affected by the storm should review their emergency preparedness plans and these sources of information to ensure their employees are fully protected. 

In a memorandum to Regional Administrators, OSHA’s Director of Enforcement Programs (DEP) has set forth the criteria for employers to be removed from the Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP).  The memorandum stems from a review of the SVEP undertaken by DEP in fiscal year 2011.

Under the memorandum, an employer may be removed from the SVEP after a period of three years from the date of final disposition of the SVEP inspection citation items.  In addition, employers must have "abated all SVEP-related hazards affirmed as violations, paid all final penalties, abided by and completed all settlement provisions, and not received any additional serious citations related to the hazards identified in the SVEP inspection at the initial establishment or at any related establishments."

Final approval of removal from the SVEP is at the discretion of the Regional Administrator or his/her designee (except when national corporate-wide settlements are involved).  The memorandum also calls for an additional follow-up inspection before removal finally occurs.

Since the SVEP was issued, employers have questioned the agency on whether and how an employer in the SVEP can be removed from the program.  This memorandum provides further guidance to employers, but still leaves discretion to the Regional Administrators or Area Directors.

All employers should take note of this new memorandum.  

OSHA has recently announced two new “initiatives” aimed at improving compliance in traditional "summer-time" areas of concern for the agency:  heat illness and falls.

Heat Illness

Since 2009, OSHA has placed a priority on the prevention of heat illness, especially in the hot summer months.  The most recent campaign is intended to raise the awareness among workers and employers about the hazards of working outdoors in hot weather by creating a webpage devoted exclusively to work-related heat illness. While OSHA does not have a standard dealing directly with heat stress, OSHA could potentially utilize the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to cite employers for failing to take adequate steps to protect employees from heat illness. Employers should review their policies and practices to ensure that they have plans in place to deal with heat stress at their worksites.

Preventing Falls in Construction

Similarly, OSHA recently launched a webpage devoted to preventing falls in the construction industry.  OSHA provides educational and other materials to employers on ways to prevent falls in construction, train employees, and plan jobs safely. Fall hazards are also a major focus of enforcement in the construction industry. It is incumbent upon construction employers to ensure full compliance with OSHA’s standards related to fall protection.

OSHA has announced a plan to establish a Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee to advise and make recommendations to OSHA Assistant Secretary Michaels on ways to improve OSHA’s administration of its whistleblower protection enforcement program.  Click here for a link to a full article on the new Committee.

It has been approximately two years since the Department of Labor announced its “Plan/Prevent/Protect” compliance strategy, with the basic goal to “ensure employers and other regulated entities are in full compliance with the law every day, not just when Department inspectors come calling.”  We thought that it would be interesting to take a quick look back over the last two years to see how some of the key DOL agencies did in fulfilling their promised action items.  The attached Special Report looks back at the activities of OSHA, OFCCP, and the Wage-Hour Administration under Plan/Prevent/Protect. 

Vacating citations issued by OSHA for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s recordkeeping requirements, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has held that the citations were untimely and barred by the Act’s six-month statute of limitations.  Click here for a full discussion of the decision. 

In one of the most significant rulemaking efforts in over a decade, OSHA has finalized a rule revising its hazard communication standard to align it with the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). The rule will affect over 5 million business establishments across the country. Over 40 million employees will need to be retrained on hazard communication under the proposal. OSHA estimates the annualized compliance costs will be over $200 million for employers. Annualized net monetized benefits are estimated to be approximately $550 million.

Click here for an article analyzing the new requirements.

OSHA has announced a National Emphasis Program (NEP) to encourage compliance with safety and health standards at nursing and residential care facilities through programmed inspections.  The NEP, which directs OSHA compliance officers to focus inspections on ergonomic stressors associated with lifting patients; slips, trips, and falls; bloodborne pathogens; exposure to tuberculosis; and workplace violence, took effect on April 5, 2012 and is scheduled to remain in place for three years.  The attached Special Report summarizes the key aspects of the NEP and provides guidance to help ensure compliance with the OSHA standards identified as target areas.