Higher penalties, tougher regulations coming from OSHA, says MSCI conference speaker

An expert on workplace safety issues and OSHA, David Jones, says there will likely be few immediate changes in OSHA enforcement, regardless of who wins the presidential election. Jones will be the keynote speaker at Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based MSCI’s Safety Conference, Oct. 19-20, 2016, in Anaheim, Calif. He chairs the Workplace Safety and Practices Group at the national law firm Ogletree Deakins, having worked for more than 35 years in and outside government on labor and employment issues.

However, maximum fines for a variety of violations are increasing by more than 75 percent this month, and tough regulations will continue. “For the last seven and a half years OSHA has been quite aggressive in its enforcement efforts,” Jones said. Today the agency is “a lot more heavy-handed in outing employers who are not in compliance, and it has been attempting to shame employers into compliance.”

Jones will explore a variety of specific ways metals industry companies can minimize their exposure to OSHA compliance efforts in his keynote address.

The upcoming presidential election has naturally prompted considerable speculation about what changes a new administration might bring to OSHA.

“In either case, Trump or Clinton, it is not at all clear,” he said. “My experience has been that newly appointed political officials often don't have a lot of expertise in how their agencies are run, and it takes them a while to figure out how they can effect the change that they want to put in place. Even though it takes time to turn the OSHA ship around, we know that any new president is interested in implementing their vision as expeditiously as possible.”