OSHA 300A Form: Common Mistakes Employers Make

BY: Carl Habekost, Esq.
March 2, 2020, is the deadline for electronically reporting your OSHA Form 300A Annual Summary of workplace injuries and illness data for calendar year 2019. The Form 300A is a summation of the workplace injuries and illnesses recorded on the OSHA 300 Logs during the previous calendar year, as well as the total hours worked the previous calendar year by all covered employees.

OSHA Penalties Annual Adjustments for 2020

BY: Carl Habekost, Esq.
Since 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has increased OSHA penalties annually based on the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index, after a 26 year increase hiatus.  The DOL is required to adjust maximum OSHA penalties for inflation annually by the 15th of January.

Look In the Sky: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s OSHA!

Unpreventable Employee Misconduct

BY: Carl Habekost, Esq.
Employers have a defense to an OSHA citation when the violation of a safety regulation was due to unpreventable employee misconduct.  There are four elements to the unpreventable employee misconduct defense that must be proven to vacate a citation.

Fall Protection in the Roofing and Construction Industry

BY: Carl Habekost, Esq.
The duty to have fall protection in the construction industry (OSHA section 1926.501) regularly tops the list of the most frequently cited OSHA standards.  But fall protection, although of paramount importance, is not the only requirement for roofing and construction companies in developing an effective safety program. In 2016, OSHA published “Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs in Construction.