The U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit has sent a loud wake up call to OSHA, by ruling that the
agency must proceed against injury record generation violations within six
months of the injury in question, rather than waiting until OSHA’s infrequent
injury log reviews to spot and issue citations for omitted injury reports. In
May, 2006, the agency began a review of Volks Construction, and concluded that
the company failed to record several on the job injuries to Volks’ workers in
the Volks injury logs during the years 2002 through 2006. OSHA cited Volks and
imposed $13,300.00 in fines on the company.
Volks moved to dismiss the citations, arguing that
the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires the agency to issue citations
for failing to record injuries within six months of the injury in question.
OSHA defended its lack of diligence by arguing that each injury Volks failed to
record constituted an “ongoing violation” of the agency’s five year record
maintenance requirement, and therefore the six month statute of limitations did
not apply.
While the lower courts went along with the agency,
the D.C. Court of Appeals slapped OSHA’s hands, ruling that the agency must
issue any citation for failing to log an injury or complete reporting paperwork
on it within six months of the date of the injury, or lose its enforcement
powers.
