Practical Welding Today - July/August 2010

Engineering and fabrication company L&N (Scotland) Ltd. has been awarded a seven-figure service contract by Cameron Intl. Corp. The two-year deal, with a one-year option, will see Aberdeen-based L&N work on behalf of Cameron’s Manifold L&N to provide autogeneous, orbital welding services to Cameron Manifold Group

Group on projects in Houston, Angola, Nigeria, and Egypt.

A team of up to eight L&N personnel will provide autogenous and orbital welding along with various testing and mechanical installation services.

OSHA establishes severe violator program, increased penalties

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Washington, D.C., in an effort to address urgent safety and health problems facing Americans in the workplace, is implementing a new Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) and increasing civil penalty amounts.

“For many employers, investing in job
safety happens only when they have adequate
incentives to comply with OSHA’s require-
ments,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor
for OSHA Dr. David Michaels. “Higher
penalties and more aggressive, targeted
enforcement will provide a greater deterrent
and further encourage these employers to
furnish safe and healthy workplaces for their
employees.”
SVEP is intended to focus OSHA enforce-
ment resources on recalcitrant employers
who endanger workers by demonstrating
indifference to their responsibilities under
the law. This tool includes increased OSHA
inspections in these work sites, including
mandatory OSHA follow-up inspections,
and inspections of other work sites of the
same employer where similar hazards and
deficiencies may be present. SVEP is set to
become effective before June 1.

In 2009 OSHA assembled a work group to evaluate its penalty policies and found currently assessed penalties are too low to have an adequate deterrent effect. Based on the group’s recommendations, several administrative changes to the penalty calculation system, outlined in the agency’s field operations manual, are being made. These administrative enhancements will become effective in the next several months.

The penalty changes will increase the overall dollar amount of all penalties while maintaining OSHA’s policy of reducing penalties for small employers and those acting in good faith.

The average penalty for a serious violation will increase from about $1,000 to an average $3,000 to $4,000. The current maximum penalty is $7,000, and the maximum penalty for a willful violation is $70,000. The Protecting America’s Workers Act would raise these penalties, for the first time since 1990, to $12,000 and $250,000, respectively.