Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1498036
36 PalletCentral • March-April 2023 palletcentral.com Adele L. Abrams is an attorney and safety professional who represents companies in litigation with OSHA and also provides safety training and consultation. The Law Office of Adele L. Abrams PC has three offices: Beltsville, MD; Denver, CO; and Charleston, WV. She may be reached at www.safety-law.com or 301-595-3520. from various quarters, including observing that VPP worksites still have histories of fatalities and catastrophic event after attaining VPP recognition, and opposing the routine inspection exemptions. VPP sites do have to report severe injuries and fatalities under 29 CFR 1904.39 in the same manner as other sites, and they are also subject to inspections arising from complaints, referrals and imminent danger observations. Some have suggested that VPP sites should pay an application fee, renewal fee, or auditing fee as this money comes out of OSHA's budget and uses funding that could otherwise be reprogrammed for rulemaking or enforcement activities. In the Federal Register notice, OSHA asks for information on nine different aspects of VPP, as well as welcoming more general comments on the program: • Incentives for employers to participate; • Methods of assessing SHMS effectiveness; • Potential use of consensus standards in the program; • Possible roles for either private certification bodies or certified OHS professionals in VPP reviews (this use of NGOs or special employees was discussed at length during the 2017 stakeholder meetings); • A "tiered" approach to the program; • Potential reforms to OSHA's administration of VPP; • e role of "special governmental employees" (SGE) in the process; and • e program's name (which has in the past caused some to misconstrue it as making compliance "voluntary"). During the Trump Administration, criteria were changed to make it more difficult to evict a VPP participant from the program, and there were two stakeholder meetings held early in his term but no major revamp occurred. For more information on OSHA enforcement or compliance, contact Adele Abrams at safetylawyer@ gmail.com.