New OSHA rule clarifies penalties on personal protective equipment

New OSHA Law Clarifies Stricter Penalties on Personal Protective Equipment

A new OSHA initiative aimed at punishing asbestos removal employers who improperly supply their workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) and training went into effect on January 12, 2009. The new law clarifies that:

"each covered employee is required to receive PPE and training, and that each instance when an employee subject to a PPE or training requirement does not receive the required PPE or training may be considered a separate violation subject to a separate penalty."

The addendum to the current PPE-related nomenclature is meant to properly punish employers who brazenly ignore such important safety standards. The law is largely a response to the abhorrent employment practices of a Texas businessman known as Erik Ho. Ho had been cited for numerous violations for failing to provide respirators or proper asbestos training to any of his 11 undocumented Mexican workers. Despite these violations and repeated attempts to ignore these safety regulations, Ho was only held responsible for one respirator and one training violation.

Prior to the new law, the judge for Mr. Ho's case interpreted the wording of the OSHA document to encompass all employees as a single unit, rather than individually. As this was not the intended interpretation for the document, OSHA saw it fit to clarify the wording so that future gross negligence of employers will not yield such lax rulings.

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