Below in an excerpt from an article authored by Robinson+Cole Environmental, Energy + Telecommunications Group lawyers Megan E. Baroni, Christopher Y. Eddy, Peter R. Knight, and Jonathan H. Schaefer that was published in ISHN (Industrial Safety & Hygiene News).
The Occupational Safety and Health Act provides for increased penalties for employers who fail to rectify conditions following an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) citation resulting in a similar incident. Such “repeat citations” are an essential element of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) enforcement scheme. As OSHA practitioners and environmental, health and safety professionals know, avoiding repeat citations is often a central issue when resolving an OSHA enforcement matter. OSHA policy instructs the agency to consider several factors when determining whether to characterize a citation as “repeat.” One of those factors involves a situation in which there has been a change in corporate structure or ownership between the initial and subsequent violations. In such instances, OSHA will evaluate whether there is “substantial continuity” between entities that warrants characterization of a citation as “repeat.” If, however, there is enough change in the corporate structure between the initial and subsequent violation, the citation will not be classified as “repeat.” Read the full article.