OSHA announced an increase to its penalties today of nearly 80 percent and some MSHA fines will increase by several thousand dollars as well. The new civil penalty amounts, courtesy of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, are applicable only to civil penalties assessed after Aug. 1, 2016, whose associated violations occurred after Nov. 2, 2015.
OSHA’s maximum penalties, which have not been raised since 1990, will increase by 78 percent. The top penalty for serious violations will rise from $7,000 to $12,471. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations will increase from $70,000 to $124,709.
MSHA’s penalties will increase in some areas and decease in others. The new minimum penalty for a 104(d)(2) Order will be $4,553 rather than $4000 and the maximum penalty for a flagrant violation will rise to $250,433 from $242,000. However, the maximum penalty for most other MSHA violations will decrease to $68,300 from $70,000.
A Fact Sheet on the Labor Department’s interim rule is available here. A list of each agency’s individual penalty adjustments is available here.
