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OSHA has announced public hearings on the controversial new personal protective equipment and employee training requirements regulations.

 

Many employers have questions or concerns regarding the most recent OSHA regulations. In an effort to allow business owners to air grievances, and take part in the process of formulating new regulations, the agency will hold hearings in October.

 

OSHA will hold public hearings on the new PPE and employee training requirements  in Washington, D.C. on October 6 and October 7, 2008. Regulators will clarify the remedies available for violations of the regulations.

 

The hearings will be held at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Ave. N.W., Conference Room C-5320 #6, in Washington, D.C.

 

OSHA encourages all interested employers, employees and members of the public to participate. An official  notice of hearing is available at http://federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-21852_PI.pdf

 

The proposed revisions are to implement OSHA’s longstanding position that its PPE and training standards impose a separate compliance duty to each employee covered by the PPE or training requirements. An employer who violates one of these provisions commits a separate violation for each employee who is not trained or does not receive the proper PPE.

 

This means that an employer who fails to provide safety goggles for 1,000 employees has committed 1,000 separate violations, and can be fined for each. Under previous standards, some OSHA inspectors were only issuing one fine for the entire company.

 

In this proposal, OSHA seeks to amend its PPE and training standards to clarify the nature of the employer’s obligation to each employee and to conform with the language that the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has approved as the basis for per-employee citations.

 

More information about the proposal may be found in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in the Aug. 19 edition of the Federal Register (73 FR 48335). Members of the public with questions about the hearing may contact Veneta Chatmon at 202-693-1999.

 

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