Increased OSHA Enforcement Targets Small Business in the Coming Fiscal Year!
While the $3.7 trillion budget for fiscal year 2012 submitted Feb. 14 by the Obama Administration would freeze overall nonsecurity discretionary spending for the next five years by eliminating and reducing hundreds of programs, it also calls for increased funding for several agencies within the Labor Department, including OSHA. take a look at what OSHA plans to do with its funding, starting October 1st, 2011, especially if you own a small business.
The largest line-item increase in the president's budget proposal is for OSHA's standard-setting directorate, which would rise by 36.8%, from $19 million in fiscal 2010 to $26 million. The president's fiscal 2011 budget proposal sought $573 million for OSHA but was never adopted. Instead, a series of four continuing resolutions has maintained federal government funding at fiscal 2010 levels. Under the fiscal 2010 budget, OSHA is currently funded at $558.6 million.
Here’s a summary of some of OSHA’s plans, included in the budget proposal:
A PDF of OSHA’s entire budget proposal can be found here.
- TARGET SMALL BUSINESSES: OSHA’s Site Specific Targeting (SST) Program focuses inspections on businesses that report high injury rates. For the first time, SST will target businesses with 20 or more employees. The previous minimum number of employees was 40.
- INCREASED ENFORCEMENT: OSHA plans to hire 25 additional inspectors to “expand the agency’s enforcement presence.” They are requesting an Enforcement Budget Increase of more than 35% and plan to increase funding for their Whistleblower Program by over 40%!
- INCREASED INSPECTIONS: OSHA estimates it will conduct 41,000 inspections from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012. That’s a 6.5% increase in the number of inspections conducted during fiscal 2010.
- INCREASED FOCUS ON MULTI-SITE EMPLOYERS: OSHA plans to implement a new directive for its inspectors before 2012 on Corporate-Wide Settlement Agreements (CSAs) for multi-site employers. The new directive will target smaller employers with multiple locations.
- ENFORCEMENT ON USE OF CONTRACTORS: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is stepping up efforts to identify misclassification of employees as independent contractors. OSHA will train its inspectors to recognize where misclassification is occurring and to refer such situations to the proper DOL division for enforcement.
- “SEVERE VIOLATORS” TO BE FEATURED ONLINE: OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program (SVEP) will develop a website that will display SVEP employers. At the end of 2010, OSHA had classified 89 businesses as SVEP cases. 78% of these cases were small businesses with under than 100 employees.
- EXAMINATION OF SAFETY INCENTIVE PROGRAMS In 2012, one of the new National Emphasis Programs (NEPs) will emphasize Recordkeeping and will focus on employers that under-report injuries and illnesses. The Recordkeeping NEP will also examine safety incentive programs to see if they discourage workers from reporting injuries.
- TARGET STATE STANDARDS OSHA will issue comprehensive evaluations of all state OSHA plans again in the 2012 Fiscal year. OSHA wants to ensure all state safety programs are equal to the federal one, particularly in enforcement.
Note: Some of these initiatives are dependent on OSHA receiving the requested budgetary increase, but OSHA has made its’ intent clear on focusing more on small businesses. Contact OSHA Plans for a Needs Assessment and make sure you’re in compliance with OSHA regulations.
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