Rockford Systems Offers Assistance in Interpreting Recent Changes to OSHA Enforcement Guidance

Rockford Systems is offering assistance to safety professionals in interpreting OSHA’s guidance changes and understanding how to best safeguard their machinery and workforce. For assistance please visit www.rockfordsystems.com or call 1-800-922-7533.

Instance-By-Instance Citations

OSHA Regional Administrators and Area Office Directors now have the authority to cite certain types of violations as “instance-by-instance citations” for cases where the agency identifies “high-gravity” serious violations of OSHA standards specific to certain conditions where the language of the rule supports a citation for each instance of non-compliance. These conditions include lockout/tagout and machine guarding among the many listed, and those in addition to cases with other-than-serious violations specific to recordkeeping.

Read more about OSHA’s updated Enforcement Guidance:

https://www.osha.gov/memos/2023-01-26/application-of-instance-by-instance-penalty-adjustments

Separate Citations

In a second action, OSHA issued a memorandum to its Regional Administrators and Area Directors reminding them of their authority to not group violations, and instead cite each separately when deemed appropriate. These changes are intended to ensure OSHA personnel will apply the full authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Act where increased citations are needed to discourage non-compliance and “Profit over Safety” scenarios.

Read more about this action:

https://www.osha.gov/memos/2023-01-26/exercising-discretion-when-not-to-group-violations