8.19.14  

  SHRM.org  

 

Eric J. Conn was quoted in an article titled "OSHA's Severe Violators Grow by 23 Percent from 2013."

 

An excerpt:

 

A total of 423 employers — an increase of 23 percent from a year ago — make up the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) really bad actors list, according to recently updated data.

 

Eighty workplaces have been added to OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) log since July 1, 2013. Five companies successfully contested violations and were removed from the program in that time.

 

The SVEP is intended to focus enforcement efforts on significant hazards and violations by concentrating inspection resources on employers who have demonstrated recalcitrance or indifference to their Occupational Safety and Health Act obligations, according to OSHA.

 

Eric Conn, head of the OSHA Practice Group at Epstein Becker Green, is one of the foremost critics of the program. Among the various issues Conn has brought up since the program's inception in 2010, he says the most fundamental flaw of the SVEP is branding employers as severe violators before proving the employers broke the law.

 

"In a society that values due process, OSHA should be required to first prove the underlying violations that serve as the basis for qualifying an employer into the SVEP, before broadcasting to the world that the employer belongs in a special category of bad actors," he said.

 

You can view this webinar presented by Conn to learn more about how and when employers are entered into the SVEP, the consequences involved, and tips to help employers.