News Release
« BackOSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Directive Now in Effect
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
OSHA's new Severe Violators Enforcement Program (SVEP) directive went into effect on June 18. The agency announced in April that it was implementing the program to focus on employers who continually disregard their legal obligations to protect their workers.
OSHA's SVEP focuses enforcement efforts on employers who willfully and repeatedly endanger workers by exposing them to serious hazards. The directive establishes procedures and enforcement actions for the severe violator program, including increased inspections, such as mandatory follow-up inspections of a workplace found in violation and inspections of other worksites of the same company where similar hazards or deficiencies may be present.
The directive explains that the SVEP is intended to focus enforcement efforts on employers who have demonstrated recalcitrance or indifference to their OSH Act obligations by committing willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations in one or more of the following circumstances: a fatality or catastrophe situation; in industry operations or processes that expose workers to severe occupational hazards; exposing workers to hazards related to the potential releases of highly hazardous chemicals; and all egregious enforcement actions.
In addition, the agency will be increasing civil penalty amounts under SVEP. Companies can expect the average penalty for a serious violation to increase from about $1,000 to an average of $3,000 to $4,000. Future penalty increases would also be tied to inflation.
See the Severe Violator Enforcement Program directive for more details.
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