You run a tight and safe ship at your place of work. You care about your employees’ safety, and you know the safety rules for your industry or field. But then it happens: You get a notice of a violation from the Occupational and Safety Hazard Administration (OSHA). What now?
Let our Chicago commercial litigation lawyer at Ellis Legal explain your options.
Fight it or Not?
The first thing to do is to read the violation and make a decision on whether or not you want to agree to it or contest it. This is important because if you want to contest the allegations in the notice, there are strict deadlines.
Missing those deadlines could lead to your business being penalized and you losing any possible defenses to the charges that you would have otherwise had. That’s not just losing the chance to challenge the notice—it includes the potential loss of the ability to challenge the charges in court if the matter ever gets to a court.
Posting the Notice
One negative aspect of getting cited by OSHA, regardless of what you want to do with the charges, is that the violation must be conspicuously posted at your workplace for 3 days or until whenever the violations are corrected, whichever is longer. You can incur even more fines and penalties for not posting the notice, and the requirement to post doesn’t change even if you are challenging the allegations levied against you by OSHA.
Should You Agree?
Why would you just agree to the charges in the notice? In most cases, you do have the option of correcting the infractions in the notice (there will be a time limit provided to correct the infractions, and your attorney can negotiate for more time if it is needed to make the corrections).
This may be a good strategy if the allegations are minor or correctable or if you genuinely know that there was an oversight by your company.
Challenging the Allegations
If you do want to challenge the allegations against your business, you must contest the charges on an official “Notice of Contest” OSHA form within 15 days after you receive the violation notice from OSHA.
The notice allows you to have an informal meeting with a local OSHA official, which may allow you to resolve the problem quickly and informally. You must request the meeting within the aforementioned 15-day period.
If the complaint can’t be resolved through negotiations, OSHA will likely file a complaint formally against your business. The complaint is an administrative law hearing.
Available Defenses
You may have defenses at your disposal, including the fact that OSHA requirements would not have been possible to comply with, that OSHA had no permission to inspect your business, or that workers violated your company policies and procedures, which were OSHA-compliant.
Remember never to retaliate against or punish in any way any employee who makes an OSHA complaint. That can get you in trouble from both the employee and the federal government.
Speak with a Chicago commercial litigation law attorney at Ellis Legal at (312) 967-7629 today for help if your business has a legal issue with the government.