The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced its Top 10 Violations List for 2017, which identifies the most frequently cited workplace safety violations issued between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017.
For the sixth consecutive year, violations under the fall protection-general requirements topped the list, with more than 6,000 citations issued in the federal government’s fiscal year 2017. Rounding out the top five were violations under the hazards communications, scaffolding, respiratory protection, and lockout/tagout requirements.
While OSHA’s Top 10 list remains relatively unchanged from year to year, new to the 2017 list were citations for fall protection training violations. Specifically, 1,523 citations were issued in 2017 for failure to train workers on fall and equipment hazards as well as fall protection equipment use and maintenance.
These citations probably resulted from difficulties in meeting compliance obligations under OSHA’s recently issued Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection rule, which included new fall protection training requirements that had a compliance deadline of May 17, 2017. Additional provisions for fall protection, ladders and walking-working surfaces under the new rule may further impact the top violations list in 2018.