Dufour Seminars & Training To Present Cal/OSHA Compliance And Inspection Management Training On May 11, 2017

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Mar 16, 2017, 13:08 ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 16, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- James T. Dufour, highly-regarded and successful administrative law defense counsel will be presenting a webinar on Cal/OSHA compliance and inspection management on May 11, 2017. Dufour has decades of experience in OSHA policy and proceedings, including lobbying on behalf of employers and California Chamber of Commerce, Standards Board rulemaking and variance hearing presentations, and citation defense at hearings, petitions for reconsideration before the Appeals Board, and mandamus proceedings in Superior Court.

Dufour's webinar comes at a critical time for California employers, as the state promises to maintain its progressive workplace and environmental standards despite the Administration change in Washington, D.C. Cal/OSHA's already notorious enforcement policies are about to become even more onerous, as illustrated by the following examples:

Repeat Citations charged after January 1, 2017 for the same or substantially similar violations within the last 5 years will be cited on a statewide basis to any corporate entity. Penalty consequences include loss of adjustments and abatement credit, and multipliers of 2, 4 and 10 times the base penalty calculation.
Increased Penalty Maximums will be imposed by Cal/OSHA following federal OSHA: $12,471 for General and Regulatory offenses, and $124,709 for Repeat and Willful citations, effective July 1, 2017. Serious citations will remain at up to $25,000.
Definition of Serious Violation since 2011 has already increased numbers of Serious citations and penalties. Cal/OSHA neither has to prove an employer knew or should have known about the hazard or violation, nor the existence of a substantial probability of death or serious injury—the new standard is realistic possibility of harm.
New and California-Unique Standards are resulting in substantial increases in citations and penalties—from September 2015 through October 2016:

Injury and Illness Prevention: 2,141 citations; $2,365,396 in penalties.

Outdoor Heat Illness Prevention: 2,940 citations; $2,887,482 in penalties.

ALERT—Indoor Heat Illness Prevention: Senate Bill 1167 (2016), mandates an indoor heat illness prevention standard by January 1, 2019, but Cal/OSHA plans to complete it by 2018. The Advisory Committee draft requires feasible engineering controls (air conditioning) to reduce temperatures to 85º F.

Mr. Dufour will explain how to avoid such traps, and how to defend against citations issued through the appeals process. Participants will receive an electronic PowerPoint presentation with hyperlinks to the standards and other references.

For more information or registration, visit dufourseminars.com or call (916) 553-3111.

SOURCE Dufour Seminars & Training