January 17, 2019
During 2018 OSHA was already proposing plans to revise regulations and update standards for 2019. Not only will it be pertinent for incidents to be tracked and turned in at the end of the year using OSHA Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses), but OSHA also plans on increasing the maximum penalty amounts for workplace safety violations.
OSHA is moving ahead with updating their incident reporting requirements. Provisions requiring companies with 250 or more employees to submit injury and illness data from OSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injury and Illnesses) and Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report) are being removed.
With the new provisions, Companies that have 250 or more employees are required to only submit the incident data provided by the OSHA Form 300A. Any Industries that have 20 to 249 employees with higher reported rates of injuries and that encompass a more dangerous work environment must also report all workplace injuries with the OSHA Form 300A.
OSHA has a secure website with which you can submit your forms. You can choose any of the following ways to turn in your data:
These changes are expected to go in effect by June 2019.
January 15, 2019, OSHA has announced that they plan on increasing the maximum penalty amount for violations of workplace safety and health standards. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 requires the department to annually adjust its civil monetary penalty levels to keep up with inflation. However, the final rule of these 2019 adjustments will only be concluded once they are published in the Federal Register. Right now the unofficial version of the Final Rule is posted but is subject to reviews and additional revisions before being finalized.
Employers in 2019 will see an increase for each citation. For violations known as serious, Other-Than-Serious and the posting requirements, the costs will increase to $13,260 per violation. Failure to Abate will also be raised to $13,260 per day beyond the abatement date. Willful or Repeated violations will be $132,598 per violation. See chart below:
Compared to 2018 which was $12,934 for serious, Other-Than-Serious, and posting requirements. Failure to correct violations (Failure to Abate) was $12,934 per day beyond the abatement. Willful or Repeated violations cost companies $129,336 per violation. See chart below:
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