New Year, New Rules: OSHA expands instance citation policies

In the month of February, we continue to see new rules and changes to regulations that will be applied and enforced throughout 2023. The latest of these rule changes is how OSHA will issue instance-by-instance citations. As per the old policies, OSHA allowed several violations classified as either “serious” or “other than serious” to be grouped together under a single citation. This will now change starting March 25, 2023. From then on OSHA policy will give area administrators and regional directors the ability to issue an individual citation for each instance of a violation. The goal is to deter employers from continued violations and keep them committed to protecting their workers from any hazards. The expansion of this policy will generally apply to, but is not limited to, General Industry, Agriculture, Maritime, and Construction Industries. 

Instance-by-instance violations can now be issued per machine, location, entry, employee, or when the violation instances can’t be stopped by a single method. The example given by OSHA is that if three different machines were found to be unguarded and thus considered a “serious violation,” the citation issuer can give three separate citations and violations with their own penalty amounts. 

In light of these new regulations, OSHA recommends maintaining compliance with their policies, keeping your safety programs up-to-date, training employees, and addressing any hazards as quickly as possible. Organizations within the above stated industries or that have past citation history should take particular note of these new policies. To learn more about how to review and improve these regulations or your safety plan, reach out to Diversified Insurance Industries, Inc. for more information or visit: https://tinyurl.com/5fxryjm8

DII is your partner in organization compliance and employee safety. Our team of experts can work with you to understand the best plan of action for your workplace to maintain OSHA compliance in 2023. Please contact your DII representative for more information. #OSHA compliance #2023