Categories: OSHA

By Eric J. Conn and Casey M. Cosentino

The last month has been a rough stretch for OSHA in terms of Injury and Illness Recordkeeping enforcement.  As we reported last month on the OSHA Law Update Blog, in March, the Seventh Circuit beat back OSHA’s attempt to expand the meaning of “work related” for purposes of determining whether an injury or illnesses is recordable.  Then last month, the District of Columbia Circuit further and dramatically limited OSHA’s authority to cite Recordkeeping violations, by insisting that the injury that is the subject of the recordable case actually have occurred within 6-months and 8 days of the citation.

In this most recent development, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit published a decision that strictly applies the 6-month statute of limitations for issuing violations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSH Act”). See AKM LLC, d/b/a Volks Constructors v. Sec’y of Labor, No. 11-1106 (D.C. Cir. Apr. 6, 2012).  By way of background, the OSH Act states that “[n]o citation may be issued . . . after the expiration of six months following the occurrence of any violation.” 29 U.S.C. § 658(c).  The OSH Act further provides that “[e]ach employer shall make, keep and preserve” records of workplace injuries and illnesses “as the Secretary . . . may prescribe by regulation.” 29 U.S.C. § 657(c)(1).  Pursuant to this delegated authority, the Secretary of Labor has issued regulations that require employers to:

  1. Record work-related injuries and illnesses on OSHA’s 300 Log and 301 Report “within seven (7) calendar days of receiving information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred;”
  2. Prepare a year-end summary report of all recordable injuries during the calendar year on OSHA’s 300A Summary Form; and
  3. Maintain or save the 300 Logs, 301 Reports, and 300A Summary Forms for 5 years.

In the Volks case, OSHA issued Volks Constructors (“Volks”) citations on November 8, 2006, for allegedly failing to maintain complete injury and illness records from 2002 through 2006.  Volks was not cited, however, for failing to save the logs and forms for the requisite 5 years.  Rather, the violations related to Volks’ not recording or not properly recording individual recordable injuries or illnesses on the 300 Log.

Volks moved to dismiss the citations as untimely because none of the referenced injuries occurred within the 6 months preceding the citations.  In opposition, OSHA contended that Volks’ duty to maintain injury and illness logs and forms for 5 years tolled the 6-month statute of limitations.  The administrative law judge assigned to the case sided with OSHA, and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (“OSHRC”) later affirmed the ALJ’s decision. OSHRC concluded that because of the duty to preserve the log for 5 years, Volks’ failure to record the employee injuries and illnesses constituted “continuing violations,” which extended the 6-month statute of limitations until six months after the end of the 5-year retention period.

On appeal, the D.C. Circuit reversed and vacated the citations. In doing so, the D.C. Circuit found that the OSH Act’s express language rendered the citations untimely because every alleged failure-to-record violation and every workplace injury that gave rise to the violations “occurred” more than 6 months before the citations were issued.

The Court stated that, under the Secretary’s argument, “the statute of limitations Congress included in the Act could be expanded [infinitely] if, for example, the Secretary promulgated a regulation requiring that a record be kept of every violation for as long as the Secretary would like to be able to bring an action based on that violation. There is truly no end to such madness.”  The Court further noted that “[n]othing in the statute suggests Congress sought to endow this bureaucracy with the power to hold a discrete record-making violation over employers for years, and then cite the employer long after the opportunity to actually improve the workplace has passed.”

Under the Volks decision, OSHA may only cite employers for failing to record a work-related injury from the 8th day after an unrecorded injury occurred until 6-months and 8 days after the injury.  The precedential value of the Volks decision is significant because the decision was issued by the D.C. Circuit, which has jurisdiction to hear any case appealed from the OSH Review Commission.

The timing of the decision is also noteworthy because it coincided with the expiration of OSHA’s two and a half year long Recordkeeping National Emphasis Program, an enforcement program that resulted in hundreds of Recordkeeping-focused inspections.  Alleged Recordkeeping violations were found and cited by federal OSHA in two-thirds of the inspections carried out under the Recordkeeping National Emphasis Program, and yielded nearly 1,000 total Recordkeeping violations.  At the time the inspections were conducted and citations issued, OSHA was continuing its practice of citing employers for Recordkeeping issues as old as five years.  We understood that OSHA had intended to renew the Recordkeeping NEP.  Perhaps the Volks decision lead to an early retirement (or temporary hold) on that program.

Regardless of the expiration of the NEP and this new time crunch imposed by the Volks decision, employers should expect OSHA to find new ways to continue citing Recordkeeping violations, such as by amending its regulations or requiring electronic submission of Injury and Illness records to OSHA.

Back to Workforce Bulletin Blog

Search This Blog

Blog Editors

Related Services

Topics

Archives

Jump to Page

Subscribe

Sign up to receive an email notification when new Workforce Bulletin posts are published:

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.