OSHA's Severe Violator Program

Did you know that OSHA has a specific program that targets high activity workplaces?

OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) is a program that targets workplaces that receive violations during an inspection (planned, referred) and that appear to be indifferent to their obligations to keeping their employees and workplace safe by meeting the requirements outlined in the OSH Act.

There are specific criteria that must be met for a workplace / employer to end up on OSHA's SVEP violator list. The conditions that must be met are outlined below:

Fatality/Catastrophe Criterion:

A fatality/catastrophe inspection where OSHA finds at least one willful or repeated violation or issues a failure-to-abate notice based on a serious violation directly related either to an employee death, or to an incident causing three or more employee hospitalizations.

Non-Fatality/Catastrophe Criterion:

An inspection where OSHA finds at least two willful or repeated violations or issues failure-to-abate notices (or any combination of these violations/notices), based on the presence of high gravity serious violations. NOTE: Low and moderate gravity serious violations do not fulfill this criterion.

Egregious Criterion:

All egregious (e.g., per-instance citations) enforcement actions shall be considered SVEP cases.

One of the most significant features of the SVEP program is that it allows OSHA to use a "multiplier" for any repeated violations. If an SVEP targeted business receives a citation for any repeated offenses, OSHA is able to multiply the fine amount by either the number of employees at the location or the number of pieces of equipment in the location. For example: ABC Corp received a serious violation in 2022 for machine guarding on their roofing shingle line. During a subsequent inspection, OSHA finds that the same machinery remains unguarded, despite ABC confirming to OSHA that the issue had been abated. Because of the repeat citation, OSHA can multiply the fine by the number of employees. This location has 10 employees, and the citation amount for a repeat offense is $156,000. This would allow OSHA to issue a citation for the new violation in the amount of $1.56 Million dollars!

Take our word for it...YOU DO NOT WANT TO END UP ON OSHA's SVEP list.