What Is The OSHA Appeals Board?

The United States Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) at the end of 1970 to combat industrial accidents and disease. OSHA does so by creates various safety standards throughout a variety of industries, and enforces such standards via inspections and investigations. An employer may very well feel burdened by a particular standard, or disagree with a citation from the agency. In either situation, the employer can seek some form of review.

Appealing an OSHA Standard

OSHA standards are created via feedback from interested third parties, and are eventually published in the Federal Register. However, temporary emergency standards avoid most of the feedback and notice process. If someone is aggrieved by an OSHA standard, they may seek review via a federal appellate court, or request either a temporary or permanent variance (exemption) from the standard. If the employer requests a variance, they must give their employees a chance to request a hearing on the variance. Moreover, an employee can request a modification or revocation of a permanent variance six months after it was granted, which in turn, may also require a hearing.

Appealing an OSHA Citation

Potential violations end up before the OSHA area director, who will use certain guidelines to determine a possible citation. The sanctions involved are usually fines, varying in proportion to the severity of the offenses. For instance, a serious violation carries a maximum penalty of up to $7.000.00, whereas the maximum penalty for a single willful violation is $70,000.00.

A person wishing to contest a citation has fifteen working days to file a written notice with the area director. Sometime thereafter, both sides will appear before an administrative law judge. At the hearing, both sides can present written documents and verbal testimony. The administrative law judge will later issue a decision, upholding, denying or changing the citation and/or penalties.

If the employer fails at all levels of administrative review, then the next form of recourse is to seek judicial review with the proper federal appellate court.

Get Qualified Legal Counsel

The field of OSHA regulations, procedures and overall workplace standards can seem complex at times. As such, an employer contesting adverse action from OSHA would be well served by consulting with an attorney, thereby giving themselves a better chance of securing a positive outcome.

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