In an effort to help reduce workplace injuries in New York State, in 1996 then Governor George Pataki signed into effect Industrial Code Rule 59, otherwise known as ICR59 or CR59. This law mandates that any employer who has a gross payroll above $800,000 is required to participate in ICR59 if their Experience Modifier goes above a 1.20. For reference, an Experience Modifier (or Exp Mod) is a rating factor used by insurance carriers that is based on an employer's Workers Compensation loss experience over the past three policy years.
Employer's who meet the criteria, receive a written notice from the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board (NYCIRB), and are made aware that they need to have a safety consultation and evaluation completed by a Certified Safety Consultant (CSC) certified by the Department of Labor. The employer has 30 days in which to select (i.e. contract with) their CSC, and then an additional 10 days to formally notify the Department of Labor and their insurance carrier of their CSC selection.
The Certified Safety Consultant is required to hold an Opening Conference with the employer to explain the purpose and significance of ICR59, review the employer's loss history, and conduct a detailed safety program analysis. Typically the CSC will complete the loss analysis prior to the Opening Conference. And in relation to the Safety Program analysis, twelve specific safety topics must be reviewed and addressed. After the Opening Conference has been completed, the CSC needs to conduct a hazard identification survey(s) of the employers worksite(s) (or a representative sampling thereof).
The CSC must submit to the employer a completed ICR59 report within a 75 day window (from the employer's initial ICR59 notice). This report will include recommendations generated from the Opening Conference and the Hazard Identification Survey(s). The employer must then provide this report (and its recommendations) to the DOL and their insurance carrier within 30 days.
At that point, the employer has six (6) months to comply with all of the stated recommendations. At the end of that period, the WC insurance carrier involved will send out a Loss Control Representative to determine if all of the recommendations have been adequately complied with. If they have, the carrier will issue an "all clear" letter to all involved. But if one or more of the recommendations have not been complied with, in accordance with the code rule, the carrier may now increase the employer's workers compensation premium by 5% in the following year, and then 5% incrementally for each additional year that the rec's are not complied with. In other words, a 5% increase next year, then a 10% increase in the following year, and so on.
If your company has received an ICR59 notice, or if you want to be proactive to help avoid the probability of receiving one, please contact Safety by REQUEST. We take a comprehensive yet common sense approach to ICR59 compliance.
GHS is an acronym that stands for "Global Harmonization System." It is a relatively new system for classifying, labeling and providing information about potentially hazardous chemicals that is being implemented in various forms all around the world.
Prior to the GHS, many countries (including the United States) had their own chemical identification system, and in many instances they conflicted with each other. For example, a given chemical may have been classified as a physical or health hazard in one country but was considered to be safe in another. So the GHS was developed to help harmonize those systems. Individual countries are not forced to participate in the GHS; however, if they do not, they may find it difficult to market their chemical products to the nations that do. So at the present time, most industrial nations have either adopted or are in the process of adopting all or portions of GHS into their chemical systems.
In the United States, OSHA has had a chemical safety standard in place since 1970. It is known as the "Hazard Communications Standard" or "Haz Com." This standard requires affected employers (who have employees exposed to potentially hazardous chemicals) to:
The OSHA Hazard Communication Standard went virtually unchanged since its inception, but in 2012, it adopted provisions of the Global Harmonization System which has since affected chemical manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and employers. From the perspective of U.S. employers and their employees, the major changes are as follows:
Please note that affected employers who are not presently compliant with Haz Com 2012 (including its GHS provisions) may be subjected to OSHA penalties and costly citations.
For a more detailed review of Haz Com and the GHS, refer to www.OSHA.gov.
If your company would like assistance with OSHA compliance and safety training (that your employees will remember), please contact Safety by REQUEST.
Each year, OSHA Compliance Officers visit employers across the United States and thousands of violations are cited. While these violations, and their related penalties, may reflect any of OSHA’s standards, the top ten most frequently cited standards in 2016 were as follows:
1) Fall Protection – 1926.501
2) Hazard Communication – 1910.1200
3) Scaffolding – 1926.451
4) Respiratory Protection – 1910.134
5) Lockout / Tagout – 1910.147
6) Powered Industrial Trucks – 1910.178
7) Ladders – 1910.1053
8) General Machine Guarding – 1910.212
9) Electrical: Wiring, Componenents, Equipment – 1910.305
10) Electrical: General Requirements – 1910.303
Over the past few years, the standards included on the Top 10 OSHA Violations List have remained fairly constant, although their position or ranking on the list may vary slightly.
For more information on OSHA Standards refer to www.OSHA.gov. If your company would like assistance with OSHA compliance and safety training (that your employees will remember), please contact Safety by REQUEST.
When an employer has employees who are exposed to any potential hazards on the job, it is their responsibility to make sure that the employees are properly trained, that they have the right equipment and that they follow the proper procedures. But in addition, the OSHA regulations listed below, require affected employers (those whose employees have an exposure) to develop and maintain a formal written program.
Bloodborne Pathogens – 29 CFR 1910(c)(1)
Electrical Safety (lockout tagout) - 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2)(i)
Emergency Action Plans – 29 CFR 1910.38(b)
Fire Prevention Plans – 29 CFR 1910.39(b)
Hazard Communication – 29 CFR 1910.1200(e)
Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response – 29 CFR 1910.120(b)(1),(i)(1),(p)(1), (q)(1)
Lab Safety – 29 CFR 1910.1450(e)
Lockout Tagout – 29 CFR 1910.147(c)(4)
Permit Required Confined Spaces – 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4)
Personal Protective Equipment – 29 CFR 1910.132(d)
Powered Platforms for Building Maintenance (EAP for) – 29 CFR 1910.66(e)(9)
Process Safety Management – 29 CFR 1910.119(d)(1),(e)(1), (f)(1), (i)(1), (l)(1), (m)(4), (o)(3)
Respiratory Protection – 29 CFR 1910.134(b)(1)
Specific Chemicals – 29 CFR 1910.1001-1052
Note that in most cases some type of formal assessment is required as part of the program. The list above contains the primary regulations for which written programs are required, but other specialty exposures may also require written programs. For more information refer to www.OSHA.gov.
If your company would like assistance with OSHA compliance and safety training (that your employees will remember), please contact Safety by REQUEST.
All employees need to be trained in relation to the safety exposures that they will encounter on the job, and new employees need to be trained during orientation or before they encounter an exposure. Existing employees also need to receive training when they are assigned to new job duties, when their working conditions change, or when they demonstrate the need for additional training. In addition, OSHA requires that safety training on certain safety topics be provided annually. The following OSHA regulations call for annual training for affected employees:
Access to employee exposure and medical records – 29 CFR 1910.1020(g)(1)
Bloodborne Pathogens – 29 CFR 1930(e)(2)(ii)(M), g(2)(ii)(C)
Fire Brigades – 29 CFR 1910.156(c)(2), paragraph 5 of Appendix A
Fixed Extinguishing Systems – 29 CFR 1910.160(b)(10)
Grain Handling Facilities – 29 CFR 1910.272(e)(1)
HAZWOPER – 29 CFR 1910.120(e)(8), (p)(7)(i) & (ii), (p)(8)(2)(c) (q)(5), (q)(8)(i), Appendix C.2 (Training)
Mechanical Power Presses – 29 CFR 1910.217(h)(13)(i)
Occupational Noise – 29 CFR 1910.95(k)(2)
Permit Required Confined Space – 29 CFR 1910.1146(k)(2)(iv) - rescue
Portable Fire Extinguishers – 29 CFR 1910.157(g)(2) & (4)
Respiratory Protection – 29 CFR 1910.134(k)(5)
The list above contains the primary, but not necessarily all, the OSHA regulations for which annual training is required. In addition, there are also OSHA training requirements for multi-year training. For example, Powered Industrial Truck operators must be evaluated at least every three years, with refresher training provided at that time. For more detailed information refer to www.OSHA.gov.
If your company would like assistance with OSHA compliance and safety training (that your employees will remember), please contact Safety by REQUEST.
The size of any specific penalty submitted to an employer by OSHA will depend on various factors, including but not limited to: the classification of the violation or citation, the seriousness of the violation and the probability that an injury or illness could occur.
For general reference purposes, Safety by REQUEST has created this paraphrased overview of OSHA’s violation classifications and the penalties involved with each. Please note that this overview is not intended to replace or supersede OSHA’s more detailed wording which is available at the OSHA website: www.OSHA.gov.
OTHER-THAN-SERIOUS VIOLATIONS
These violations may not result in a financial penalty if they do not present or have a low probability of resulting in serious physical harm. However, a $1,000 base penalty has been established for those violations that have a somewhat greater probability of resulting in a more significant injury or illness. And at OSHA’s discretion, this penalty may extend up to $7,000 per violation.
SERIOUS VIOLATIONS
The typical range for a Serious Violation penalty would be between $3,000 and $7,000. Serious Violations are those that could inflict serious physical harm or be fatal to an employee. These violations generally reflect conditions or hazards that an employer should have been aware of and adequately controlled.
WILLFUL VIOLATIONS
These are health or safety violations that an employer willfully or intentionally commits. OSHA may impose a civil penalty of up to $70,000 but not less than $5,000.
REPEAT VIOLATIONS
If an employer is cited for a violation during an inspection and then, upon a re-inspection within the next five years, is found to have committed the same or a substantially similar violation, there may be a civil penalty of up to $70,000.
FAILURE TO ABATE
After receiving an OSHA citation, if the violation is not corrected within the prescribed abatement period, the employer may be penalized up to the initial amount of the penalty for each additional day.
OTHER INFORMATION AND PENALTIES
Under the “Other-than-Serious” category, failure to maintain OSHA 300 Forms (when required) can result in a penalty up to $1,000. Failure to Post the Annual Summary up to $1,000. Failure to post a OSHA Citation up to $3,000. Falsifying records, or the like, up to $10,000 and up to six months in jail. Assaulting a compliance officer or interfering with his or her duties is a criminal offense and may bring a fine up to $5,000 and up to three years imprisonment. And the list goes on.
For assistance on how to comply with OSHA standards and to help proactively avoid related citations and penalties, please contact Safety by REQUEST.
There are primarily three OSHA “300” Injury and Illness Reporting forms.
The OSHA 300 is essentially a log of the reportable work-related injuries or illnesses that occur at a given workplace throughout a calendar year. It contains basic information in relation to each recordable injury or illness, and each new recordable event must be entered within 7 days of the employer receiving notice.
The OSHA 300a essentially summarizes the information on an OSHA 300 along with requiring some additional information and the signature of an upper executive. This form is filled out in January for the OSHA 300 form that was completed in the prior calendar year. It must then be posted in an observable area for the months of February, March and April.
The OSHA 301 is basically an Injury and Illness Incident Report. One of these reports must be filled out for each recordable injury or illness that takes place. However, it should be noted that if an employer uses and maintains a report that records the same information as the 301, the 301 does not have be maintained. In New York State, the C2 is generally considered to be an acceptable alternative to the 301.
Typically, the OSHA Injury and Illness forms are one of the first things that an OSHA Compliance Officer will ask to see when he or she visits an employer’s location to conduct a survey. So it is very important to complete them correctly and maintain them in accordance with the OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Standard. Failure to do so may result in significant penalties.
For more specific information on this important OSHA standard, refer to www.OSHA.gov. If your company would like related assistance or training, please contact Safety by REQUEST.
The straight forward answer to this question is NO. While there are many different employers who do need to fill out the OSHA 300, 300a & 301 forms, there are many others who do not. It all depends upon the size of the company and the employer’s workplace exposures as reflected by their NAICS or SIC classification.
To start with, employers who have fewer than 10 employees over the course of a calendar year are considered to be partially exempt and so do not have to fill out the OSHA 300 forms.
In relation to larger employers, in general, if their employees are involved with more hazardous job duties, such as manufacturing, construction, or service trades, they are required to maintain the OSHA 300 forms. Employers whose employees are involved with less hazardous job duties, like insurance agencies, financial institutions or the like, are not. But the only way to know for sure is to compare your company’s NAICS or SIC code with OSHA's list of partial exemptions.
It is also significant to note the following:
For more specific information on this important OSHA standard, refer to www.OSHA.gov. If your company would like related assistance or training, please contact Safety by REQUEST.
To obtain a PDF copy, visit:
www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/new-osha300form1-1-04.pdf
To obtain an Excel copy, visit:
www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/new-osha300form1-1-04.xls
A new mandatory rule related to OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping has taken effect. Many employers who are presently required to record their injury and illness data on OSHA 300 forms, must now also begin to submit data from them to a new secure OSHA website that is planned to be operational in February of 2017.
Employers with 250 or more employees must electronically submit information from their 2016 300a forms by July 1, 2017, their 2017 300a, 300 and 301 forms by July 1, 2018, and their 2018 (and beyond) 300a, 300 and 301 forms by March 2 of the following year.
Employers with 20 - 249 employees in select industries must electronically submit information from their 2016 300a forms by July 1, 2017, their 2017 300a forms by July 1, 2018 and their 2018 (and beyond) 300a forms by March 2 of the following year. The types of industries included on this "high-risk" list is on the OSHA website, and is surprisingly wide.
Even more surprising, is that various injury and illness data submitted by affected employers will be publicly disclosed by being posted to the OSHA website. This means that such data will not only be accessible to an employer's customers and competitors, but members of the media and general public as well.
Employers with fewer than 20 employees do not need to electronically submit any injury or illness data under the new rule at this time.
For more information refer to www.OSHA.gov, or contact Safety By REQUEST for assistance.