When it became apparent yesterday that the wildfire smoke cascading throughout parts of the Northeastern United States was having a serious health effect on anyone outside and exposed to the harmful particulates contained in such smoke, certain outside activities were simply canceled, such as the major league baseball games in Philadelphia and New York City. But what if your business cannot simply give everyone the day off and you are concerned about your legal obligations to your employees, especially if their outside work is exposing them to potential adverse health effects?
Read MoreCategory: OSHA
Get Ready For More OSHA Inspections, Citations, and Greater Penalties
As we head into 2023, employers can expect to see more aggressive OSHA enforcement. BNA reported that the number of OSHA inspectors grew 19% in the fiscal year 2022. This was not surprising given the significant increase to OSHA’s FY 2021 budget, which earmarked funds to hire new OSHA inspectors. Moreover, the Biden administration has requested 701 million for OSHA in the fiscal year 2023, which is approximately $89 million more than OSHA received in 2022, so increased hiring and more frequent inspections are likely to continue past 2023.
Read MoreA Reminder of the March 2nd Deadline to Electronically Submit OSHA 300A and OSHA Penalty Increase Update
As a reminder to covered establishments, they must electronically submit their Form 300A on or before March 2, 2023, which can be done here. Covered establishments generally include 250 or more employees or 20-249 employees in certain high-risk industries identified by OSHA. OSHA has publicly announced that it has been developing an analytic approach to identify non-responders from the previous calendar year’s data collection process, so we fully expect to see more aggressive enforcement against non-responders this year.
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