We are attending the
ABA Occupational Safety and Health Law Meeting this week in
Santa Barbara, California. This morning a hot topic is developments
in OSHA's enforcement programs and initiatives, including the
"enforcement weighting system," the increase in
penalties, enterprise-wide enforcement, severe violators
enforcement program, and criminal prosecutions, etc.
The Solicitor of Labor, Patricia Smith, is here, and she
stressed that OSHA will continue to push for enterprise-wide relief
as an effective tool for preventing violations. As many employers
know, this has historically been a controversial issue in OSHA law
because principles of due process and fundamental fairness are
strongly implicated when OSHA attempts to enforce alleged
violations against facilities where no actual alleged violations
were observed or cited by OSHA. Ms. Smith also stressed how the
agency believes criminal prosecutions can serve as a very important
deterrent. This is an important
