On Aug. 1, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) implemented its new maximum penalty system, adjusted to the current U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Consumer Price Index (CPI). For the past 26 years, OSHA’s penalty limits remained comparable to the 1990 CPI, but Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, repeatedly petitioned congress in committee hearings for higher penalties, declaring, “Employers can be fined more for mistreating cattle on federal lands than for allowing an employee fatality!”
Last November, members of the Republican-controlled 114th Congress granted him his wish and proposed the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. The amendment was a compromise in a long contested, bipartisan budget agreement to keep the federal government funded and to not default on the growing national debt. The Final Rule from OSHA was published in the Federal Register on July 1 — when the congressional subcommittee finally arrived at an increase adjusted for inflation capped at 150 percent of existing penalties with a “recommended” 78 percent maximum allowed increase in penalties. These will affect: OSHA; the Employee Benefits Security Administration; the Mine Safety and Health Administration; as well as the worker’s compensation program.