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32 Pallet C e nt ral • Ma rch -Ap r il 2 0 24 SAFETY BY ADELE L. ABRAMS, ESQ., ASP, CMSP A s we entered the new year, OSHA sent season's greetings in the form of increased civil penalties for violations of mandatory safety and health standards. e new penalties take effect on citations issued after January 15, 2024, and can be retroactively applied to violations occurring before that date, for which citations were not yet issued. e maximum penalty for a willful/repeat violation is now capped at $161,323, up about 3.2% from the previous level of $156,259. e more common serious and BEYOND THE OSHA PENALTIES: What's Hur ng Workers . . . And Employers? "OTS" (Other-than-serious) violations can be assessed now at up to $16,131 per violation. Other OSHA penalties went up too, and violations of the agency's requirement to timely report a fatality (within 8 hours) or serious injury including amputations and in-patient hospitalizations (within 24 hours) can result in penalties from $5,000 to $161,323. Failure to abate penalties can be assessed at $16,131 per day beyond the abatement date listed on the citation—unless the abatement date is extended with OSHA's consent or a notice of contest is filed within 15 working days from service of the citations. Note that some state-plan states have different adjudication and contest timelines, as well as shorter periods within which to report fatalities. e 22 states (plus US territories) that run their own OSHA programs are required to adopt maximum penalty levels that are at least as effective as federal OSHA's—but some states have resisted and are now in disputes with OSHA that can threaten their ability to continue their independent programs. With OSHA's 2023 "Instance-by-Instance" (IBI) enforcement policy, OSHA can now issue separate items and penalties against the employer for each employee exposed

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