The following Alert comes from our Corporate Partner, Haynes and Boone, LLP and provides important information about OSHA’s new enforcement strategies:

Rolling out OSHA’s semiannual regulatory agenda on April 26, 2010, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis unveiled several action items being marketed as the “Plan, Prevent, and Protect” enforcement strategy.  According to the Secretary, employers too often take shortcuts affecting worker safety and, therefore, must plan for workplace hazards, prevent them, and protect their employees.  Shortly before announcing new initiatives for OSHA under this regulatory agenda, the agency announced the implementation of its Severe Violator Enforcement Program and a general overhaul to increase OSHA’s proposed penalties in enforcement actions.  OSHA is seemingly poised to arm its arsenal to make employers pay when they fail to plan, prevent and protect. To read the full alert, please visit the Publications section of our Web site