Working to Ensure Your Shop is OSHA Compliant

While most companies welcomed the new year with optimism and a sense of renewed energy, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has instituted a one-two punch approach to enforcement. As the old saying goes, being “forewarned is forearmed.”

Printing operations need to ensure their programs are following OSHA’s regulations. Printers are well-advised to spend some time addressing workplace safety hazards and mitigating their OSHA risks now before OSHA comes knocking.

OSHA’s Revised Enforcement Policies

OSHA has delivered employers a one-two punch to “make its penalties more effective in stopping employers from repeatedly exposing workers to life-threatening hazards or failing to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements.”

The first action by OSHA gave their enforcement staff expanded authority to issue instance-by-instance citations for certain “high-gravity” serious violations of OSHA standards. Those rules include lockout/tagout, machine guarding, permit-required confined space, respiratory protection, falls, trenching, and violations of OSHA record-keeping standards. Now citations may be applied for a machine, location, entry, employee, or for any other violation type allowed by law, and a separate penalty will be assessed for each violation.

Second, OSHA reminded its enforcement staff that they have broad discretion not to group violations together, but rather to cite employers for each violation separately when appropriate.

This policy, unlike the instance-by-instance policy, is not limited to a specific list of standards. Instead, it applies to all OSHA standards and is to be used when the evidence allows for separate citations
or where different conduct gives rise to the violations.

For example, under the Hazard Communication Standard, the regulation requires that a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) be obtained and maintained for each OSHA defined hazardous chemical or product that contains hazardous chemicals. During an inspection, if the inspector discovers that more than one SDS is not available for a chemical, the inspector could issue a citation and penalty for each missing SDS. Likewise, all secondary containers are required to have a label that identifies the contents of the container and hazard warnings. A citation and penalty could be issued for each container that does not have a conforming label.

The announcement of the new guidance follows on the heels of OSHA’s increases in penalties for 2023. OSHA’s maximum penalties for “serious and other-than-serious violations” increased from $14,502 to $15,625 per violation. The maximum penalty for “willful or repeated violations” increased from $145,027 to $156,259 per violation.

Becoming Compliant with OSHA’s Regulations

OSHA compliance can be intimidating as there are many regulations that can apply to a printing operation. One great starting point is to examine the most violated OSHA standards and use that to focus your compliance efforts. Addressing those will put you on the road to full compliance.

The Top 10 violations for the printing industry are:  

1. Hazard communication (29 CFR 1910.1200) OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) requires information be communicated to employees about the chemical hazards they are exposed to and protective measures to ensure their health and safety. Common citations include not having a written program, safety data sheets for all chemicals, employee training, and secondary container labels.
2. Lockout/Tagout (29 CFR 1910.147) The lockout/tagout regulation protects employees from unexpected machine startups or hazardous releases during servicing and maintenance. Failing to lockout equipment, lacking a written program, and not conducting annual inspections of machine-specific procedures are the most common violations.
3. Machine guarding (29 CFR 1910.212) OSHA has several standards to protect employees from exposure to hazards such as ingoing nip points, point of operation, flying sparks and chips, and other moving components. This regulation requires that physical guards be provided to protect employees from exposure and contact with the hazards associated with moving parts.
4. Powered industrial trucks (29 CFR 1910.178) Employees that operate forklifts or other industrial-powered vehicles, such as pallet jacks, must be initially trained, certified, and reevaluated every three years. Safety violations include improper vehicle use, lack of training, and failing to recertify operators every three years.
5. Personal protective equipment (29 CFR 1910.132) OSHA requires all employers to conduct a formal written workplace hazard assessment to determine what personal protective equipment is required to protect employees from injuries. In addition, employers are required to provide personal protective equipment and provide employee training in its proper use. Failure to conduct the assessment and certify it is a commonly overlooked requirement.
6. Respiratory protection (29 CFR 1910.134) If respirators — other than voluntary use of dust masks or N-95 respirators — are to be provided to employees, there are specific steps that must be followed. Failing to establish a written respiratory program was one of last year’s most common violations, followed by the failure to provide proper medical evaluations to those using respirators. Voluntary use of dust masks and N-95 respirators requires that employees be given a copy of Appendix D of the standard.
7. Maintenance, safeguards, and operational features for exit routes (29 CFR 1910.37) This standard has several components addressing emergency exit routes and doors. Exit routes must be free and unobstructed. No materials or equipment may be placed, either permanently or temporarily, within the exit route. The exit access must not go through a room that can be locked, such as a bathroom, to reach an exit or exit discharge, nor may it lead into a dead-end corridor. Flammable furnishings and décor should be kept away from exit routes. Exit routes should be well lit, posted with directional signs, and “EXIT” signs must be placed at exits. Doors that are not exits but are located near exit access points should be labeled “Not an Exit” or labeled with their use (for example, “To Basement” or “Closet”). An emergency alarm system must be present and operational.
8. Electrical safety – general (29 CFR 1910.303) This regulation contains many technical requirements and addresses methods, components, and equipment. It requires electric equipment to be free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees, and that includes guarding when live parts are exposed for inspection or service. The most-cited paragraph is proper use of equipment which mandates “Listed or labeled equipment shall be installed and used in accordance with any instructions included in the listing or labeling.” This can cover things like improper installation of an electrical box, but OSHA has also cited this for things such as improperly using power strips or allowing employees to use outlets that were not correctly installed. Another common violation is the failure to maintain access and working space around electrical equipment, which is usually three feet for most printing operations.
9. Electrical safety – wiring methods, components, and equipment for general use (29 CFR 1910.305) This regulation covers requirements for facility wiring, cabinets, boxes and fittings, switches, conducts, enclosures for damp and wet location, and has many provisions. Some requirements in this regulation are the prohibition on using extension cords for permanent wiring and using cords that are damaged. It also requires breaker identification and labeling, not allowing open slots in breaker boxes, missing knockouts in junction or breaker boxes, and having proper pendant drops for portable equipment.
10. Reporting fatalities and multiple hospitalization incidents (29 CFR 1904.39) The regulation requires employers to report to OSHA any in-patient hospitalization of an employee resulting from a work-related incident if the hospitalization occurs within 24 hours of that work-related incident, amputation, or loss of an eye. Any employee fatality resulting from a work-related incident must be reported within eight hours if the death occurs within 30 days of that work-related incident.

Summary and Conclusion

Citing violations on an instance-by-instance basis allows OSHA to increase the number of violations and the proposed corresponding fines. Historically, OSHA would often group several alleged violations into a single citation along with a single proposed penalty. Under the new policy, OSHA inspectors are approved to cite each incident as a separate violation and propose a fine for each violation. Therefore, what might have been one $5,000 fine total that covered five violations, could now be a $5,000 fine for each violation, for a total of $25,000.

A printing operation’s successful navigation of an OSHA inspection begins well in advance. Taking proactive steps to perform a critical evaluation of your current program and implementing actions to correct shortcomings will save time and money in the event of an OSHA inspection. These actions, include training employees in workplace safety and empowering managers and supervisors to properly address safety hazards in the workplace, provides a solid foundation.

PRINTING United Alliance has many member-only safety and OSHA compliance resources designed to assist members with their OSHA compliance requirements. In addition, the iLEARNING+ Center has a safety training course on machine guarding with two soon-to-be released courses on lockout/tagout and Hazard Communication.

For More Information

More information about OSHA can be found at Business Excellence-Environmental, Health, and Safety Affairs or reach out to Gary Jones should you have additional questions specific to how these issues may affect your business: gjones@printing.org.

To become a member of the Alliance and learn more about how our subject matter experts can assist your company with services and resources such as those mentioned in this article, please contact the Alliance membership team at 888-385-3588 or email membership@printing.org.