While several parts of the federal government are shutdown, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) continues to operate as normal, given it is one of the few agencies that received funding for the current fiscal year.
On Jan. 17, OSHA reminded the animal food industry of two important items regarding civil penalties and job-related injury and illness reports.
OSHA Adjusted Civil Penalties for 2019
Based on the Department of Labor's Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act, OSHA will increase the civil penalty amounts for violations of workplace safety and health standards for inflation for 2019.
Penalties for willful and repeat violations will be $132,598 per violation.
Serious, other-than-serious, and posting requirements will be $13,260 per violation and failure to abate violations will be $13,260 per day beyond the abatement date.
The adjusted maximum penalty amounts took effect upon publication in the Federal Register on Jan. 15.
Employers Should Post 2018 Injury/Illness Summaries Beginning Feb. 1
OSHA reminded employers that they must post copies of their OSHA Form 300A, which summarizes job-related injuries and illnesses logged during 2018.
The Form 300A must be displayed in a common area where notices to employees are usually posted from Feb. 1 - April 30. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees and those in certain low-hazard industries are exempt from OSHA recordkeeping and posting requirements.
You can visit OSHA's "Recordkeeping Rule" webpage for more information on recordkeeping requirements.
OSHA also reported that workplace fatalities declined in 2017 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2017 (CFOI) report, released in December.
The fatal injury rate decreased from 3.6 percent in 2016 to 3.5 percent in 2017.
For more information on workplace injury trends and safety statistics, see The National Safety Council's online version of the Injury Facts reference book.
The free resource features a section on workplace safety that includes work-related injury and fatality trends and information on how to benchmark an organization's injury and illness incidence rates against national averages.
You can sign up for OSHA's QuickTakes newsletter here.
For more information, contact Gary Huddleston, AFIA's director of manufacturing and regulatory affairs, at (703) 558-8854.