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Top 10 OSHA Violations for 2016

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Top 10 OSHA Violations for 2016 TOP 10 VIOLATIONSSHA for 2016 NOTICE FINAL OSHA E V E N TS SPECIAL REPORT Top 10 OSHA Violations for 2016 i Vice President, Content and Product Development: Patricia Trainor, JD Founder: Robert L. Brady, JD Senior Managing Editor, Environment, Health, and Safety: Amanda Czepiel, JD Senior Editor, Safety: Emily Scace Senior Production Manager—CMS: Matt Sharpe Content Production Specialist: Sherry Newcomb Quality Control Associate: Linda Costa Proofreaders: Joan Carlson, Brechin Knapp This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. (From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers.) © 2017 BLR®—BUSINESS & LEGAL RESOURCES All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in part or in whole by any process without written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use or the internal or personal use of specific clients is granted by Business & Legal Resources. For permission to reuse material from OSHA’s Top 10 Violations for 2016, 978-1- 55645-585-8, please go to http://www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978- 750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and regis- tration for a variety of uses. ISBN: 978-1-55645-585-8 Printed in the United States of America Questions or comments about this publication? Contact: BLR—Business & Legal Resources 100 Winners Circle, Suite 300 Nashville, TN 37027 800-727-5257 http://www.blr.com ii Top 10 OSHA Violations for 2016 Table of contents Introduction ...................................................... 1 General Duty Clause enforcement ................................2 Recent GDC cases ..............................................3 Severe injury reporting, enforcement, and RRIs ....................4 Types of OSHA citations ........................................5 Penalty increases ...............................................6 Coming soon: Electronic injury and illness submission ...........................6 Most frequently violated standards— General industry 2016 ..........................................7 Most frequently violated standards— Construction 2016 ..............................................8 1. 29 CFR 1926.501 Fall Protection in Construction ................... 9 Total violations—6,877 Total penalties—$26,044,601 .....................................9 2. 29 CFR 1910.1200 Hazard Communication ....................... 10 Total violations—5,646 Total penalties—$3,864,543 .....................................10 3. 29 CFR 1926.451—Scaffolding in Construction ................... 12 Total violations—3,884 Total penalties—$8,362,429 .....................................12 4. 29 CFR 1910.134—Respiratory Protection ........................ 13 Total violations—3,562 Total penalties —$2,949,453 .....................................13 5. 29 CFR 1910.147—Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) .. 14 Total violations—3,391 Total penalties—$13,288,827 ....................................14 6. 29 CFR 1910.178—Powered Industrial Trucks .................... 16 Total violations—2,843 Total penalties—$5,138,924 .....................................16 7. 29 CFR 1926.1053—Ladders in Construction ..................... 17 Total violations—2,615 Total penalties—$4,711,849 .....................................17 8. 29 CFR 1910.212—Machine Guarding—General requirements for all machines .................................................... 19 Total violations—2,437 Total penalties—$9,414,885 .....................................19 ©BLR®—Business & Legal Resources 10102600 iii 9. 29 CFR 1910.305—Electrical—Wiring methods, components, and equipment—General ......................................... 20 Total violations—1,934 Total penalties—$2,289,718 .....................................20 10. 29 CFR 1910.303—Electrical— General requirements ......................................... 21 Total violations—1,703 Total penalties—$2,907,873 .....................................21 iv Top 10 OSHA Violations for 2016 Introduction Because the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can- not inspect all 7 million workplaces it covers each year, the Agency seeks to focus its inspection resources on the most hazardous workplaces in the follow- ing order of priority: 1. Imminent danger situations—hazards that could cause death or seri- ous physical harm—receive top priority. Compliance officers will ask employers to correct these hazards immediately or remove endangered employees. 2. Fatalities, catastrophes, and severe injuries and illnesses—employers are required to report all work-related fatalities within 8 hours and all work-related inpatient hospitalizations, amputations, or eye-loss inci- dents within 24 hours. Based on the severity of the incident and other specified criteria, OSHA will either conduct an on-site investigation or initiate a rapid-response investigation (RRI) that requires the employer to conduct its own root cause analysis and submit evidence of corrective actions. 3. Complaints—allegations of hazards or violations also receive a high pri- ority. Employees may request anonymity when they file complaints. 4. Referrals of hazard information from other federal, state, or local agen- cies; individuals; organizations; or the media receive consideration for inspection. 5. Follow-ups—checks for abatement of violations cited during previous inspections are also conducted by the Agency in certain circumstances. 6. Planned or programmed investigations—inspections aimed at specific high-hazard industries or individual workplaces that have experienced high rates of injuries and illnesses also receive priority. As a result of OSHA’s enforcement efforts, many of the same standards make the “most frequently violated” list again and again. In this year’s report, we have provided individual charts for the top 10 viola- tions for both general industry and construction, with last year’s ranking in the last column. The report covers violations for fiscal year (FY) 2016, which runs from October 1, 2015, through September 30, 2016. ©BLR®—Business & Legal Resources 10102600 1 General Duty Clause enforcement In this report, we discuss OSHA’s top 10 most frequently violated standards. But many employers do not realize that when there is no specific stan- dard, OSHA will use the General Duty Clause (GDC), Section 5(a)(1), of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) of 1970 to cite employers. Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act requires: “Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.” The GDC is the “gap filler” in enforcement actions that addresses recognized hazards where no OSHA standard exists. The Agency often looks to voluntary consensus standards such as those put out by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) or the American National Standards Association (ANSI) as a basis for GDC citations, as well as information in manufacturers’ instructions or product warning labels. Over the past several years, OSHA has shown itself to be increasingly willing to cite employers under the GDC for a variety of haz- ards not covered by its safety and health standards. The courts have interpreted OSHA’s GDC to mean that an employer has a legal obligation to provide a workplace free of conditions or activities that either the employer or industry recognizes as hazardous and that cause, or are likely to cause, death or serious physical harm to employees when there is a feasible method to abate the hazard. An employer can be found to be in violation of the GDC if it can be shown that: ◆◆ A hazard existed. ◆◆ The hazard was likely to cause death or serious physical harm. ◆◆ The employer had knowledge of the hazard or should have had knowl- edge because the hazard had been recognized by the employer, the industry, or common sense. ◆◆ The hazard was foreseeable. ◆◆ Workers were exposed to the hazard. Common areas in which OSHA uses the GDC include: ◆◆ Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) resulting from hazardous lifting, repetitive tasks, awkward positions; ◆◆ Failure to protect employees from heat stress; ◆◆ Failure to keep employee chemical exposure levels below recommended levels; ◆◆ Cell phone use while driving on the job; ◆◆ Use of a forklift without a seat belt; ◆◆ Risk of workplace violence; ◆◆ Improper storage of highly reactive chemicals; and ◆◆ Combustible dust explosion hazards. 2 Top 10 OSHA Violations for 2016 Necessary elements to prove a violation of the GDC include: ◆◆ The employer failed to keep the workplace free of a hazard to which employees of that employer were exposed; ◆◆ The hazard was recognized; ◆◆ The hazard was causing or was likely to cause death or serious physical harm; and ◆◆ There was a feasible and useful method to correct the hazard. A GDC violation must involve both the presence of a serious hazard and expo- sure of the cited employer’s own employees within the previous 6 months. It is key under the GDC that employers can be cited only for exposure of “his
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