Poage on OSHA fines.

Last week Insider reviewed OSHA inspection fines given to out of home advertising companies.  Insider asked Formetco safety director Jim Poage to comment on the results.

OSHA wrote $152,000 in  fines during the past 12 months as a result of display advertising inspections but those fines were later reduced to $99,285.  Can we infer from this that when you are fined by OSHA you can sometimes get the fine reduced?

Yes, you can get a reduction.  If someone that is familiar with how OSHA works, or if a company hires a good OSHA attorney, they can usually get the fine reduced or removed.  I have done this several times where after the compliance safety and health inspector has assessed the problems, and calculated the maximum penalty, the employer can either agree to the penalty, and take a discount for not contesting it, or request an informal hearing with the local area director of OSHA to discuss the penalty.  If you can prove that it was the employee’s fault and they were trained and knew how to do the job correctly, you could get the penalty dismissed.  Sometimes you can get creative and agree to the penalty and offer to use the money to pay for additional training for the company employees rather than just giving it to the agency.  Anyone that just goes with the original penalty is demonstrating their lack of understanding how OSHA works.

9 of the 26 fines handed out during the past year occurred in Virginia.  Can we infer from this that there is an extremely zealous Virginia office of OSHA?

Yes, exactly.  What usually happens is a compliance safety and health inspector discovers the activities on billboards and decides to launch a campaign to check every operation in their jurisdiction.  This can also be triggered by a fatality or high profile injury that occurs.

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