Every year, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) releases its 10 most commonly violated workplace safety standards of the previous fiscal year. According to OSHA, “far too many preventable injuries and illnesses occur in the workplace,” so they publish this annual list of common OSHA violations to keep employers alert and reduce the number of workplace injuries and fatalities by encouraging employers to properly train their employees.
What Is Considered an OSHA Violation?
An OSHA violation is any workplace negligence, either willful, repeat, or otherwise, that defies any of the OSHA workplace safety standards. There are five major types of OSHA violations:
- De Minimis Violations: A simple technical violation of OSHA regulations that does not lead to any fine or citation.
- Other-Than-Serious Violation: A violation that may not lead to employee injury or fatality, but still carries the potential to put the employee’s health and safety at risk.
- Repeated Violations: When a subsequent investigation reveals an initial OSHA violation was not immediately corrected and happens again, OSHA will issue a repeat violation.
- Serious Violations: The violation that OSHA issues when an employer knows about a health or safety hazard and fails to correct it.
- Willful Violations: The most serious violation, a willful violation is issued when an employer willfully defies OSHA regulations or demonstrates behavior that puts their employees’ health and safety at risk.
The 10 Most Common OSHA Violations of 2020
OSHA published its 2020 report in February of 2021 and found the following to be, in order, the 10 most commonly violated workplace safety standards of the 2020 fiscal year:
- Fall Protection – General Requirements (5,424 violations);
- Hazard Communication (3,199 violations);
- Respiratory Protection (2,649 violations);
- Scaffolding (2,538 violations);
- Ladders (2,129 violations);
- Lockout/Tagout (2,065 violations);
- Powered Industrial Trucks (1,932 violations);
- Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1,621 violations);
- Personal Protective and Life Saving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1,369 violations);
- Machine Guarding (1,313 violations).
Top Crane Violations of the 2020 Fiscal Year
In addition to these findings, OSHA also discovered the following crane inspection data for the 2020 fiscal year:
More than half of OSHA’s total cited “Inspections” violations were reported as serious, with seven total repeat violations. Repeat OSHA violations often incur fines as high as $70,000.
Always ensure that the individual conducting your crane inspection is properly qualified and knowledgeable with documented certification. Total Equipment Training can send qualified mobile crane inspectors and qualified overhead crane inspectors to your job site for proper, OSHA-compliant on-site inspection.
