OSHA Penalties in CT Drop by 50%

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced that it was raising fines for safety violations. According to a new report, however, such fined handed down to employers and businesses in Connecticut have declined by more than 50% from 2011 to 2015. Furthermore, the same report found the total number of safety violation cases that resulted in penalties in Connecticut had declined by 40% through the same period.

OSHA's Bridgeport and Hartford offices released this report, showing that employers had paid $10.86 million in 2011. In 2015, however, that number dropped to just $5.07, signaling a positive trend for the state. While penalties in other states have increased, the opposite has happened in Connecticut: they've decreased -- and this isn't a trend that analysts expect to stop anytime soon.

If we look at data for the 2016, we'll see that safety violation penalties have also been on the decline. For the first three quarters of 2016, OSHA levied a total of 312 penalties against employers and business owner. 12 of these cases were considered "high," costing employers spending more than $700,000 for each. Now if we look at the first three quarters of 2015, we'll see that there were even more fines levied against employers, 474 to be exact. There were also more high-cost penalties during this period at 14.

This begs the question: why is OSHA handing down fewer penalties to employers and business owners in Connecticut? Well, we can only speculate as to the reasoning, but there are a few plausible scenarios. First and foremost, OSHA officials say that employers are taking a more proactive approach towards compliance with federal and state regulations.

Fewer safety violations isn't always a good thing, though. Some labor officials say both employers and employees in Connecticut are undereporting incidents. This, of course, is a serious issue, as it jeopardizes the safety of workers. When work-related injuries go unreported, officials can make the necessary changes to prevent future incidents from occurring.

According to Tim Morse of UConn Health, work-related illnesses are more difficult to identify than traditional physical injuries since they occur over a prolonged period. If a worker developed a herniated disc in his or her back, for instance, the condition may not be identified until months or even years later, during which the incident will go unreported. This could also be a contributing factor why Connecticut has fewer work-related injuries.