December 29, 2003—Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) leader John Henshaw released the following statement December 8 regarding the agency’s appeal of a ruling that could block its ability to issue egregious citations against the worst violators of workplace safety rules:
“OSHA has appealed a decision that could harm its ability to protect worker safety and health. When an employer commits especially flagrant violations of its requirements, OSHA has a longstanding policy of citing each instance of the volatile conduct. In the case we have just appealed, however, the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission held that Eric K. Ho, an employer who failed to provide protective equipment or training to 11 workers exposed to asbestos committed only a single violation of OSHA personal protective equipment and training requirements. We are asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reverse that decision.
“In accord with agency policy, the citations charged that Ho violated OSHA’s training and protective equipment standards 11 times each, once for each worker he failed to protect. Ho challenged the citations before the Commission, and an administrative law judge upheld them. This fall, however, on review of the ALJ’s decision, the full Commission held that Ho was only liable for a single violation of each of those standards, regardless of how many workers he failed to protect. It reduced the proposed penalties for these violations by more than 80%, from $858,000 to $140,000.
“This case began on September 3, 1998, when OSHA charged Eric K. Ho with 28 willful violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and its asbestos standards, and proposed civil penalties totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars. Ho’s violations included assigning workers to remove fireproofing at a building in Houston, Texas, without telling them that the fireproofing contained asbestos, without training them to remove it safely, and without providing them with protective clothing and respirators.”
