Posted on: 17th August, 2016

Cal- Osha Violations: As a result of the new budget the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration otherwise known as (OSHA) is set to increase penalties for all OSHA Violations for the first time since 1990. Perhaps you are asking yourself the question “Who is OSHA and why should I be concerned?”   OSHA is a part of the Department of Labor, OSHA is a Federal Agency that ensures safe and healthy working conditions for employees by enforcing workplace safety standards and safety training in the workplace.

OSHA is the arm of the federal government that enforces these safety regulations by imposing fines and penalties for unsafe work practices. As it stands right now employers are being crushed even before this budget was signed but now things will get worse fast. From 1990 through 2015 OSHA’s fines had not increased. From 1990 to 2015 OSHA was one of three federal agencies that were exempt from a law requiring agencies to raise the rate of OSHA.

All of this will change because of a section of the 2015 budget bill-the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment-Act Improvements Act of 2015. This section has eliminated that status and now the rate that employers will pay for any and all OSHA Violations will increase a bunch.

For those employers who live in California, this will cause the Cal-Osha violations to rise as well. The reason for that is Cal-Osha is funded to a large extent by OSHA and therefore, Cal-Osha must be in line with what OSHA does. The new budget bill features a one-time “catch-up” feature which at the end of a long day allow OSHA Violations be raised somewhere between 75-80% higher than what we are now seeing.

Violations as they reflect the increases:

• Non-Serious OSHA Violations will now be: $12,600
• Serious OSHA Violations will now be: $12,600
• Willful Violations OSHA Violations will now be: $126,000
• Repeat Violations OSHA Violations will now be: $126,000.

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