Two years after the start of the Severe Violations Enforcement Program (“SVEP”) the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) continues to add employers to its list of offenders.
At the end of June, 330 establishments were designed as sever violators by OSHA. More than 20 Ohio companies found their way onto this list. In the past year the number of employers added to SVEP has nearly doubled according to OSHA.
The majority of businesses that have found themselves on this list are construction companies. 172 construction companies were added to the SVEP by OSHA.
The SVEP was instituted in June of 2010 to bring additional enforcement on employer who willfully and repeatedly endanger workers by exposing them to serious hazards. To be declared s severe violation, a business must have experience a fatality or an accident that hospitalized at least three workers or have been cited for significant violations by OSHA.
