January 26, 2012
Recent EH&S Trends Based on 2011 Data
February 2, 2012
The EH&S Compliance Cycle: Audits, Development, Implementation, and Maintenance
February 9, 2012
Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) & August Mack’s eCAP Programe
February 16, 2012
Background Contaminants
February 21, 2012
IDEM Rule 6 Storm Water Permits
February 23, 2012
Environmental Due Diligence for Commercial Property Transaction
March 2, 2012
How Do You Manage Your Safety Risk in Environmental Remediation Projects?
March 8, 2012
Changes to Indiana Closure Guidance
March 15, 2012
Environmental Considerations with Land Use Redevelopment
March 22, 2012
Updated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) Standards
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations and fines can be time consuming to correct, expensive and bring a negative light to a company’s overall reputation. Repeat violations, or willful or knowing violations, will compound these issues exponentially. OSHA views repeat violations as a company’s indifference to safety in general and can put you in a high risk category. In fact, OSHA has a clear set of programs and procedures designed to concentrate resources on companies with repeat violations.
“OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), which concentrates resources on inspecting employers who have demonstrated indifference to their OSH Act obligations by committing willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations. Enforcement actions for severe violator cases include mandatory follow-up inspections, increased company/corporate awareness of OSHA enforcement, corporate-wide agreements, where appropriate, enhanced settlement provisions, and federal court enforcement under Section 11(b) of the OSH Act. In addition, this program provides nationwide referral procedures, which includes OSHA’s State Plan States.”
Companies that have multiple facilities under the same operational control and are decentralized, meaning each facility operates independently, run an additional risk, since OSHA views the company or corporation as one entity and can hold all facilities responsible for correcting any issues. Therefore, if one facility is issued a violation for example, 1910.146 Confined Space, and a year later a different facility receives a violation for the same issue, it could be treated as a repeated, willful or knowing violation. This costs the second facility considerably more time and money to resolve, as well as bringing the entire corporation under increased scrutiny.
Furthermore, an even bigger risk is if an employee is injured or killed violating a regulation which was already identified, or cited, by OSHA. This could potentially cause the company substantial monetary loss as well as scrutiny from the agency.
In my 25 years of experience, companies are genuinely interested in keeping their employees safe and meeting OSHA regulations. However, if companies with multiple facilities, especially decentralized facilities, are unaware of the extended risk to other facilities, they can unknowingly compound the problem.
The key is communication. A company has an opportunity after receiving and correcting a violation to share the information with the other facilities, which could decrease your company’s overall exposure to future OSHA violations. Another benefit of sharing is the possibility of standardizing the company’s programs and documentation. For example, if a company loses a key safety manager, and another employee is temporarily filling that position, or a new manager is hired, he or she should be able to follow the standardized program set-up across the company with ease.
August Mack offers an award-winning compliance assurance program (eCAP®,), an environmental, health and safety (EH&S) management system which creates reproducible and standardized programs in which corporate and local management can share resources.
Ask yourself…
- Are there other facilities in my company that have had significant safety violations? In most cases, the information is readily available on the Internet.
- Could risk from other facilities cause you problems down the road, or vice versa?
- Do you know the safety managers from the other facilities? Do you communicate regularly?
- Is there consistency between plans from different facilities?
Ed Callahan is a Business Development Representative for August Mack Environmental, Inc. in its Indianapolis, Indiana office. Ed can be reached at 317.916.3156 or via e-mail at ecallahan@augustmack.com.