Workers in Illinois and Indiana deserve safer workplaces as employers continue to violate same safety standards year after year.
Each year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) announces its annual compilation of the most often cited workplace safety standards. During the 2024 Safety Congress and Expo hosted by Illinois’ internationally renowned safety organization, the National Safety Council (“NSC”), OSHA’s enforcement programs director revealed the OSHA Top 10 List of Safety Violations.
Of particular importance is the revelation that the basic safety law designed to keep workers safe from falls on the job remains the number one most-often safety violation for the fourteen (14th) year in a row.
From OSHA Director Scott Ketcham, the following list:
- Fall Protection—General Requirements (29 CFR §1926.501)
- Hazard Communication (29 CFR §1910.1200)
- Ladders (29 CFR §1926.1053)
- Respiratory Protection (29 CFR §1910.134)
- Lockout/Tagout (29 CFR §1910.147)
- Powered Industrial Trucks (29 CFR §1910.178)
- Fall Protection—Training Requirements (29 CFR §1926.503)
- Scaffolding (29 CFR §1926.451)
- Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment—Eye and Face Protection (29 CFR §1926.102)
- Machine Guarding (29 CFR §1910.212).
Illinois’ NSC President: Critical to Find Solutions
Illinois is honored to be the state that the NSC calls home, where the safety organization has built a worldwide reputation for fighting against preventable deaths and injuries on the job and on our roads.
In tandem with OSHA’s revelation of the Top 10 Most Violated Safety Regulations in 2024, the agency released its own warning to workers and employers alike. From Lorraine Martin, NSC president and CEO:
“While incredible advancements are made in safety each year, we continue to see many of the same types of violations appear on OSHA’s Top 10 list. As a safety community, it’s critical we come together to acknowledge these persistent trends and identify solutions to better protect our workforces.”
Employers’ Legal Duties of Safety and Care: They Know Better
From the perspective of advocates for worker victims and their loved ones, it is shocking to read how the same safety regulations show up, year after year after year, in OSHA’s Annual Top 10 List. After all, the dangers that our workers face are well-known. And these safety laws have been established – most for many years now – to try and protect people on the job from being hurt or killed while on task, making money for those employers who are duty-bound under the law to keep them safe. For earlier discussions, read: OSHA Top 10 Safety Violations for 2023; and Top 10 OSHA Workplace Safety Violations in 2019: Employers Violating Safety Laws.
Consider the online “short summary” provided by OSHA of “Employer Responsibilities.” It’s free to read or print and easy enough to find online. And this is in addition to the more formal notifications of legal duties provided by governmental authorities. It is also in addition to all the various safety programs and educational efforts provided by all sorts of places, such as the NSC’s Training and Courses.
Provide a workplace free from serious recognized hazards and comply with standards, rules and regulations issued under the OSH Act.
Examine workplace conditions to make sure they conform to applicable OSHA standards.
Make sure employees have and use safe tools and equipment and properly maintain this equipment.
Use color codes, posters, labels or signs to warn employees of potential hazards.
Establish or update operating procedures and communicate them so that employees follow safety and health requirements.
Employers must provide safety training in a language and vocabulary workers can understand.
Employers with hazardous chemicals in the workplace must develop and implement a written hazard communication program and train employees on the hazards they are exposed to and proper precautions (and a copy of safety data sheets must be readily available). See the OSHA page on Hazard Communication.
Provide medical examinations and training when required by OSHA standards.
Post, at a prominent location within the workplace, the OSHA poster (or the state-plan equivalent) informing employees of their rights and responsibilities.
Report to the nearest OSHA office all work-related fatalities within 8 hours, and all work-related inpatient hospitalizations, all amputations and all losses of an eye within 24 hours. Call our toll-free number: 1-800-321-OSHA (6742); TTY 1-877-889-5627. [Employers under federal OSHA’s jurisdiction were required to begin reporting by Jan. 1, 2015. Establishments in a state with a state-run OSHA program should contact their state plan for the implementation date].
Keep records of work-related injuries and illnesses. (Note: Employers with 10 or fewer employees and employers in certain low-hazard industries are exempt from this requirement.
Provide employees, former employees and their representatives access to the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (OSHA Form 300). On February 1, and for three months, covered employers must post the summary of the OSHA log of injuries and illnesses (OSHA Form 300A).
Provide access to employee medical records and exposure records to employees or their authorized representatives.
Provide to the OSHA compliance officer the names of authorized employee representatives who may be asked to accompany the compliance officer during an inspection.
Not discriminate against employees who exercise their rights under the Act. See our “Whistleblower Protection” webpage.
Post OSHA citations at or near the work area involved. Each citation must remain posted until the violation has been corrected, or for three working days, whichever is longer. Post abatement verification documents or tags.
Correct cited violations by the deadline set in the OSHA citation and submit required abatement verification documentation.
Breach of Legal Duties Can Cause Catastrophic Injuries or Death in Work Accident
There is a clear reason for these federal safety regulations, and that is to keep workers safe from harm. Under federal law effective over 50 years ago, the “Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970,” 29 U.S.C. § 654, employees are given legal protections against on-the-job injuries. Employers have to provide safe work environments under the law.
Many of these safety regulations are very specific, as shown in the above Top 10 list; however, there is also a provision that applies to help workers when no specific safety law applies to their work situation. This is known as the “General Duty Clause,” found in the Act’s Section 5(a)(1). For details, read What is the Employer’s General Duty Clause?
When these safety laws are mistakenly ignored or even worse, intentionally disrespected, then workers in Indiana, Illinois, and the rest of the nation are in danger of being hurt or killed from known dangers on the worksite.
Workers who are injured because an employer did not follow safety regulations may suffer permanent injuries or even death. Their loved ones suffer, too: families are understandably heartbroken and hurt by their family member’s on-the-job accident and can suffer their own independent injuries recognized by law.
For any worker victim, it is very important to know that these safety laws exist and that violations of these regulations establish breaches of legal duties of care and safety for which there is legal compensation. Workers also need to understand if other specific laws provide them relief, as for example the protections provided to railroaders under FELA.
Sadly, all too often employers choose to sacrifice worker safety in order to maximize the company’s bottom line. These safety laws are no mystery to them, or others who have possession, custody, or control of aspects of the worksite and who may also have legal liability for worker accidents as third parties.
For more, read:
- High Hazard Industrial Workplaces: 2024 Online Exposure of Accident Injury and Illness Realities
- Worker Rights Under Federal Law: OSHA Protections and Employer Violations
- Companies Ignore OSHA Safety Regulations and Workers Get Hurt on the Job
- Job Site Injury in Illinois or Indiana: When Accidents at Work Are Not Worker’s Compensation Claims
- Multiple Employers on the Construction Site: Who Is Liable For Construction Worker Accidents?
- Premises Liability and Workplace Accidents: Third Party Injury Claims.
Workers and their loved ones need to know that employers are notorious for not following longstanding safety laws that are as widespread in need as basic protection from fall accidents on the job. There are legal protections that too many employers are just not following, and workers are at an unacceptably high risk of being hurt or killed on the job. Please be careful out there!
