Introduction
After facing an OSHA citation, abatement is necessary to return your business to compliance. Correcting the conditions that led to the citation, meeting required deadlines, notifying affected employees, and submitting verification to OSHA are all essential steps. By following a structured process for abatement, you can avoid further penalties and make meaningful improvements to health and safety at your workplace.
What Abatement Means Under OSHA
OSHA defines abatement as the employer action taken to comply with a cited standard or eliminate hazards identified during an inspection. For your team, that means taking corrective action to address the specific condition related to the citation and ensuring that the root cause is addressed, not just the visible symptoms that led to the citation.
To comply with OSHA’s abatement verification rules, each citation item should have a defined owner, documented corrective action, employee communication records, and closure status. OSHA evaluates abatement at the item level, so having individual evidence files for each is essential for compliance.
Starting the Abatement Process
The first step is to triage citations. Separate the citation and Notification of Penalty into individual citation items to be addressed. Record the standard cited, proposed penalty, abatement date, and required documentation. Deadlines and evidence requirements can vary across different items, so don’t try to handle the case as a single corrective action.
Employers have 15 working days after receiving the notice of proposed penalty to contest the citation, penalty, or both. You can also request an informal conference to address inspection issues and settlement options, but this does not extend the 15-working-day contest period for filing.
Creating a Corrective Action Plan
From there, you’ll need to plan and implement corrective action to address the items related to the citation. A technical cause analysis can help identify why the specific condition behind the OSHA citation existed. Maintenance backlogs, supervision gaps, design limitations, purchasing decisions, and inconsistent procedural enforcement are all common examples of areas that may need to be addressed through corrective action.
When implementing controls to address a hazard, that control must be properly matched to the hazard and be verifiable. Engineering changes, repaired equipment, revised procedures, retraining, exposure monitoring, contractor work, or procurement records may all be relevant. Interim measures are often needed during the corrective action process to reduce employee exposure until permanent abatement is completed.
Navigating OSHA’s Abatement Verification
For each uncontested cited violation, OSHA requires abatement certification within 10 calendar days after the abatement date unless the compliance officer observed correction within 24 hours and noted it in the citation. Certification must state the abatement date, abatement method, and employee notification status.
OSHA also requires further abatement documentation for willful, repeat, and serious violations. Acceptable support may include repair records, purchase records, photographs, videos, training records, monitoring results, revised procedures, inspection forms, or other written evidence showing completion.
OSHA may specify that your citation requires an abatement plan. This plan must be submitted within 25 calendar days from the final order date. Abatement plans identify the violation, corrective steps, completion schedule, and interim employee protections. You may also be required to provide progress reports to OSHA identifying actions taken.
Notifying Affected Employees and Posting Information
While citation posting is separate from abatement certification, it is another important step after a citation. Employers must immediately post the unedited citation at or near the violation location or in a location that is readily observable by affected employees when direct posting is impracticable.
The citation must remain posted until the violation has been abated or for three working days, whichever is longer. Submitted abatement documents or summaries must also be posted or otherwise communicated to affected employees so that they are aware of the corrective actions being reported to OSHA.
What to Do If You Cannot Meet the Abatement Date
If, for some reason, you cannot complete abatement by the date set, then you should not wait until the deadline passes to take action. You can submit a Petition for Modification of Abatement Date to OSHA if you have made a good-faith effort to comply but could not finish abatement due to factors beyond reasonable control.
The petition must be filed in writing with the Area Director no later than the close of the next working day after the original abatement date. It should include actions taken so far, the dates of those actions, how much additional time is needed, reasons for delay, and a description of interim safeguards for exposed employees.
Preparing for OSHA Follow-Up
OSHA case files remain open until the agency is satisfied that abatement has occurred. OSHA may conduct a follow-up inspection to verify correction if certification or documentation is missing or inadequate. A follow-up inspection can also evaluate whether similar hazards remain present after the cited item was addressed.
Providing as much detail as possible will help demonstrate abatement to OSHA, with specific evidence being better than simply saying that the problem has been corrected or is now in compliance. Failure to abate can quickly become costly. OSHA has a failure-to-abate penalty of up to $16,550 per day.
How Health & Safety Software Supports the Abatement Process
Abatement can involve managing a wide range of documentation from corrective action evidence to training records. Having all of your health and safety data managed through a centralized platform lets you better navigate OSHA citations and the abatement process.
ERA’s Health & Safety Solutions provide the tools for your team to handle every step of abatement after a citation. You can plan corrective actions after OSHA inspections and audits and easily assign them to the relevant workers with automated reminders. Your team can easily attach all relevant documentation to keep important evidence in one place.
Managing OSHA Abatement the Right Way
Properly navigating the OSHA abatement process requires careful planning, execution, and documentation. You must ensure that your corrective actions truly address the issues at hand, while also keeping thorough records of every step taken. With the right workflow, your team can manage abatement to return to compliance and avoid further OSHA citations and penalties.
If you’d like to hear more about how ERA’s Health & Safety Solutions can support ongoing OSHA compliance, schedule a call with one of our project analysts today.
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