SVEP Employers Now Know How to Escape
OSHA's deputy assistant secretary produced a memo explaining the Severe Violator Enforcement Program removal criteria, which can happen three years after the date of final disposition of citation items in the inspection.
OSHA's deputy assistant secretary Richard Fairfax, has sent a memo to Thomas Galassi, head of the agency's Directorate of Enforcement Programs, explaining how an employer can be removed from the Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
SVEP is a program targeting agency resources on employers that demonstrate indifference to their responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Act with willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate violation, which means it is a category no one wants to join or be in long term.
The program began June 18, 2010, and since then, 288 inspections have been designated SVEP programs, according to his memo. It says the directorate reviewed the policy in FY2011 and decided an employer can be removed after a period of three years from the date of final disposition of the SVEP inspection citation items, including failure to contest, settlement agreement, Review Commission final order, or court of appeals decision.
The employers must have abated all SVEP–related hazards affirmed as violations, paid all final penalties, abided by and completed all settlement provisions, and not received any additional serious citation related to the hazards identified in the SVEP inspection at the initial establishment or at any related establishments, Fairfax wrote.
Except where national corporate-wide settlements are involved, approval of a removal will be at the discretion of the regional administrator or designee and will be based on an additional follow-up inspection and IMIS/OIS data.