Abstract

Chemical or pharma companies and other employers that violate worker safety standards could face stiffer penalties in the future because the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) started 2016 with stronger tools to deter workplace safety violations. Employers “are far more concerned about OSHA than they were six months ago,” says Valerie Butera, an attorney who specializes in workplace safety and health at law firm Epstein Becker Green. That’s because Congress passed legislation in October 2015 that allows OSHA to increase its civil fines for the first time since 1990. In addition, an expanded joint initiative between the Department of Labor (DOL), of which OSHA is a part, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) will augment penalties by combining worker endangerment cases with charges of environmental and other offenses. These moves to strengthen worker safety are “useful and long overdue,” says Mike Wright, director of health, safety, and environment for

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