Court strikes down OSHA recordkeeping violations issued years late
A federal appeals court has struck down recordkeeping violations issued by OSHA against a petrochemical construction and maintenance company for allegedly failing to report workplace injuries that in many cases occurred years before the citations were issued.
The ruling goes against a long-time OSHA position that failure to accurately record injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 300 log from years past is a continuing violation and that the OSH Act’s statute of limitations (6 months) does not apply.
In a decision issued Friday, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously ruled that the OSHA violations issued against the company exceeded the statute of limitations. The violations were issued in November 2006 against Volks Constructors for allegedly failing to record some workplace injuries between January 2002 and April 2006, according to McDermott Will & Emery, the law firm that represented Volks.
The court’s decision reversed a decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to uphold the violations.
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1 Comment
I’m a theatrical union safety officer. The average OSHA fine for violations resulting in the death of our workers is about $6000. Many reult in no citations at all. That makes it economically adventageous to do in a worker rather than fix the safety violations.
The collapse of the Indiana State Fair stage that killed 7 people including an IATSE union rigger resulted in a series of Indiana OSHA violations including 5 years of failure to keep 300 logs. It’s hard to fight for workers rights with so few weapons.