OSHA Severe Violator Enforcement Program
Monday, August 02, 2010
In June 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) launched a new Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), which targets employers that demonstrate indifference or disregard for OSH Act provisions. SVEP is OSHA-wide, including states with a federally approved OSHA plan, and will replace the old Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP).
Though the new program does not technically change the OSHA fine structure as outlined in the OSH Act, it does allow inspectors to eliminate many penalty discounts and reductions, which will result in higher average fines per violation. Use this article to get the facts on OSHA’s SVEP and protect your company’s bottom line.
Program Goals
OSHA developed SVEP to better focus its enforcement efforts. The goal is to attend to the most serious violations first, focusing on employers who continuously demonstrate defiance or indifference to their safety obligations. OSHA's SVEP applies to employers of all sizes. Specifically, it targets employers who have committed willful, repeated or failure to abate violations that involve one or more of the following:
- A fatality or catastrophe
- High-gravity, serious violations
- The potential release of a highly hazardous chemical
- Egregious enforcement actions
Notable Changes
The introduction of OSHA’s SVEP will prompt many changes in the way inspectors enforce the OSH Act, but some of the most significant changes are outlined below.
- OSHA will consider an employer’s history as far back as five years when assessing penalties.
- With the SVEP, OSHA will also initiate a new national referral procedure. If an employer is targeted by the new SVEP and is thought to have a broad pattern of non-compliance, OSHA will inspect related worksites of the same employer.
- SVEP will change OSHA’s penalty calculation system, though fines still cannot exceed the statutory maximums.
- SVEP referral inspections will be a lower priority than imminent danger, fatality and complaint inspections, but they will come before all other programmed inspections.
- SVEP will target high-emphasis areas, which may no longer be grouped: fall hazards, amputations, combustible dust, crystalline silica, excavation, trenching, lead and shipbreaking.
- SVEP inspections will focus not only on whether previously cited violations were abated, but also on whether the employer is committing similar violations.
State Plan Impact
The SVEP is a federal program, but each state with its own plan will also be required to comply. State OSHA offices also have the option to establish their own program as long as it is equivalent to or stricter than OSHA’s SVEP. If states choose to adopt enforcement program policies that are different from federal regulations, they must post their differing policies on their state website.
More information on this initiative is available in a detailed abstract of SVEP’s provisions, available at www.osha.gov/dep/svep-directive.html.
