There are certain clubs that no one should aspire to join. In 2022, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration expanded the criteria used to place employers in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP). SVEP is reserved for companies OSHA concludes are repeatedly failing to address workplace safety issues even after being cited for such violations. Depending on the severity of the violations, employers can be placed in SVEP if they experience willful or repeated violations, or fail to abate violations once an OSHA citation is finalized.

The 2022 changes to the SVEP program expanded the criteria under which violations that do not involve fatalities or a mass hospitalization can qualify employers for the program. In addition, once placed in SVEP, employers must remain in the program for two years before petitioning for removal.

OSHA maintains a public database of SVEP participants. In practice, this listing can have devastating effects on a business. In many situations, general contractors will disqualify prospective subcontractors subject to SVEP. The program also includes increased OSHA inspections, including locations that were not the reasons why the company was placed in SVEP. Citations issued as a result of such programmed inspections often carry the elevated monetary penalties associated with repeat violations.

Although the Trump administration has indicated an intent to modify or eliminate many OSHA rules, to date there has been no effort to revisit the 2022 SVEP expansion. The best way to avoid these headaches is to avoid SVEP in the first place. In many cases, companies end up in SVEP because upper management did not take initial signs of workplace safety issues seriously, and failed to devote the resources necessary to address these issues and prevent repeat occurrences. If later asked, many of these companies probably regret not taking measures necessary to stay off of OSHA’s bad side.

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