OSHA expands Severe Violator Enforcement Program

The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association  (NLBMDA) reports that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has expanded its criteria for placing employers in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP). 

The program focuses the agency’s inspection resources on employers who either willfully or repeatedly violate federal health and safety laws or demonstrate a refusal to correct previous violations. 

In addition to being included on a public list of the nation’s severe violators, employers are subject to follow-up inspections.

The changes broaden the program’s scope and updates several procedures and criteria.

Specifically, the updated criteria include the following:

• Program placement for employers with citations for at least two willful or repeated violations or who receive failure-to-abate notices based on the presence of high-gravity serious violations.
• Follow-up or referral inspections made one year – but not longer than two years – after the final order.
• Potential removal from the Severe Violator Enforcement Program three years after the date of receiving verification that the employer has abated all program-related hazards. In the past, removal could occur three years after the final order date.
• Employers’ ability to reduce time spent in the program to two years, if they consent to an enhanced settlement agreement that includes use of a safety and health management system with seven basic elements in OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs.

The updated program instruction can be found here and replaces the 2010 SVEP instruction, the NLBMDA said.