March 7, 2011
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has held that the Secretary of Labor may now cite employers as "repeat" offenders based upon their corporate predecessors’ violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The decision in Sharon & Walter Construction Inc. is a dramatic departure from the policies of the Act and the reasoning of prior holdings. It reflects a continuing shift in favor of the Secretary’s aggressive enforcement agenda and signals a greater trend toward increased imposition of shared corporate responsibility.
In the article, "OSHA Blurs Corporate Distinctions to Expand Liability for "Repeat" Citations," which appears in BNA’s Occupational Safety & Health Reporter, Baruch Fellner and Daniel Rathbun of Gibson Dunn analyze the decision and its implications.
Reprinted with permission from Occupational Safety & Health (March 3, 2011), © Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher lawyers have significant experience counseling employers to ensure compliance with OSHA requirements, representing employers in OSHA investigations, and representing companies’ interests during the OSHA rulemaking process. If you would like to discuss these or other labor and employment law issues, please contact the Gibson Dunn lawyer with whom you work, the authors, or any of the following lawyers in the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group:
Baruch A. Fellner – Washington, D.C. (202-955-8591, [email protected])
Christopher J. Martin – Practice Co-Chair, Palo Alto (650-849-5305, [email protected])
Eugene Scalia – Practice Co-Chair, Washington, D.C. (202-955-8206, [email protected])
William J. Kilberg – Washington, D.C. (202-955-8573, [email protected])
Jessica Brown – Denver (303-298-5944, [email protected])
Jesse A. Cripps – Los Angeles (213-229-7792, [email protected])
Michele L. Maryott – Orange County (949-451-3945, [email protected])
Karl G. Nelson – Dallas (214-698-3203, [email protected])
Jason C. Schwartz – Washington, D.C. (202-955-8242, [email protected])
Elizabeth C. Watson – Los Angeles (213-229-7435, [email protected])
Daniel J. Davis – Washington, D.C. (202-955-8245, [email protected])
© 2011 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
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