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[ ] R E P O R T PAGE 5 OSHA fcmr# m~ed kxoJa P¢lge ~) Examples of the increases include: employers cited by OSHA 1or "high gravity, willful, repeated, or 5Jilture-to-abate violations" will receive a 10% increase in their penalty if they have been cited for similar violations in the previous five years; area offices agreeing to expedited settlements will be limited to 30% reductions in penalties; gravity-based penalties will be adopted; and, if there are high gravity serious violat ions identified in the severe violator enforcement program (SVEP see next item),the violations may be cited separately and each violation may have its own penalty The memo notes that the "enhancements" will become effbc tire "in the next several months" Please note that these penalty increases could also be affbcted by the "per employee" penalty Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) OSHA comments that the new SVEP has been devised to "locus OSHA enfol~2ement r esout~2es on recalcitrant employers" Employers who have committed willful, repeated, or 5dilure-to-abate violations in circumstances where there has been a fdt ality or catastrophe, "in operations that expose employees to the most severe occupational hazards" marine terminal and longshore standards), where employees are exposed to the release of a highly hazardous chemical, and "all eg~glOUS en foFce ment actions" Sevele violators aF~ Chose employers ~und to be "recalci- trant or indifferent to [their] obligations under the OSH Act" The SVEP will lead to "enhanced" and mandatory follow-up inspections and to inspections of an employer's other worksites Citations and notifications of penalties will be sent to corporate headquarters under the SVEP, as well as to employee representatives (unions) and OSHA may decide that safety and health problems may need to be taken up to the corporate level The SVEP is expected to become effective in the next 45 days O S H A I n j u r y & I l l n e s s Prevention Program: New Regulation Forthcoming Adding to an already crowded agenda, in testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at the end of April, OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels remarked that the Labor Depart- ment's Spring Regulatory Agenda includes a new enforce- ment strategy for OSHA The new OSHA standard, still being developed and not included in the Federal Reg~let listing of DOL's regulat arc agenda published on April 26, 2010, (which includes fall hazards under would require employers to "implement an Injury and Illness Prevention Program tailored to the actual hazards in that employer's workplace" Essentially, employers would be required to put together a plan chat would enable them to find and remediate hazards without an OSHA inspection taking place¸ The DOL says that this plan would I ~ q u i r e m a n a g e m e n t c o m m i t m e n t f r o m s e n i o r c o l p o r a t ~ m a n a g e r s , employee "engagement" in the program, and a hazard recognition p r o g r a m t o ~ c o g n l z e , e v a l u a t e a n d control workplace hazards¸ The program may include requirements that would allow employees to monitor the implementation of the program and "provisions to prevent employers from not coveting workers by misclassifying them as independent contractors" The Federal Reg~Mer notice states that OSHA wants to "develop a rule that will help employers reduce workplace injuries and illnesses through a systematic process that proactively addresses workplace salety and health hazards" It also notes that a previous attempt to promulgate a similar rule was removed from OSHA's regulatory agenda in 2002 Please note that maritime employers would be subject to this r u l e NcwsBtdletm 05/I0/2010

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