Podcast: Key takeaways from OSHA’s list of top violations — What safety professionals must know

Philip Jacklin is the continuing education program manager for Diversified Fall Protection. In his current position, Philip trains workers nationwide on fall protection best practices and advises safety managers, EHS leaders, plant maintenance managers, and others on how to create more efficient fall protection programs. He is an AIA continuing ed provider, QSSP certified, OSHA-30 trained, and has been a partner to the fall protection industry since 2018. Philip recently spoke with Nicole Stempak, managing editor of EHS Today, about OSHA’s top 10 most cited violations for fiscal year 2024.

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

EHST: Hey, Phillip. It's great to have you here today talking about OSHA’s top 10 violations of 2024. Before we get started, I wanted to talk about the limitations of the data itself.

PJ: In this list, I would say one of the biggest limitations is that this is federal OSHA. So, this isn't going to capture the big picture of the whole country, of a lot of state OSHA programs, states like California, Washington, Virginia, for example. That kind of data won't be in here. But I think from this, though, we can pull a general consensus of what's going on across the country.

EHST: Is there anything else that you think is important to note that this data doesn't tell us?

PJ: This is just OSHA violations, so it's hard to tell how severe these violations are. Did an OSHA agent see a near miss that could have been really tragic or is this just simply an OSHA officer seeing something and pointing it out during an audit or after an investigation? It is hard to say. Each violation is something that could have gotten somebody injured or worse. But it's just a good baseline to see what violations are common, and for other safety professionals to know what else is happening out in the field.

EHST: I think one thing that is important, and what this data doesn't tell us, is that this is only what is captured during an OSHA inspection. And this is usually when people are on their best behaviors too, right? So it only tells a small fraction of the story. And, like you said, only in those states that have federal OSHA. So keeping that in mind, it's still helpful. What can this list tell safety professionals?

PJ: It can tell them what other people are having issues with at other organizations. A really important thing in the safety industry is to know that you're probably not alone if you're having issues with fall protection, for example. Don't think it's woe is me. It's because I'm a bad safety manager. I have a bad program. This is a very common problem, and it's very difficult to find compliance in a lot of these things. So, I think that's one of the biggest takeaways other safety professionals could take from this list.

EHST: This is an annual list, so what has changed from fiscal year 2023 to 2024 this year?

PJ: While fall protection is still #1, and it has been for the past 14 consecutive years, if you look at the numbers from 2023 and even 2022, the number of violations has actually gone down quite significantly. Fall protection general requirements dropped about 1,000 violations from 23 to 24. So while it's hard to tell the full picture of the data on if that's translating to less injuries, less fatalities happening, still I'm optimistic that less violations witnessed in the field could mean people are working safer and adhering better to these standards. But that's a very optimistic take out of the data. But still, a decrease in numbers is hopefully a good thing for worker safety.

EHST: It’s great to hear that the number of violations is down overall, but what hasn't changed from fiscal year 2023 to 2024?

PJ: Like I said, fall protection is still the reigning champion on this list and has been for over a decade. While the places have changed, like in 2024, scaffolding dropped way down. It used to be the fourth highest violation in years past, and now it's #8. So again, it seems that the list of the top ten stays kind of the same. They've just shuffled around a little bit. And it's hard to tell if that's from OSHA initiatives looking out for other things like respiratory protection violations, (ever since the pandemic, it has been on the rise) or, again, if people are just working safer. So it's kind of one of those weird things where a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same also. But still, if we just focus on the decrease in number of violations, that hopefully means that people are getting it and that people are just working safer now, which I genuinely hope.

EHST: Another thing that you were talking about is that the violations on this list don't really change, although the order does fluctuate from year to year. So, what do you think that means for the state of workplace safety? Has it stagnated?

PJ: If we look overall at fatal injuries and non-fatal injuries, it looks like the general state of things is we're getting better at protecting people from these minor injuries like eye, face, and head protection. The kind of injuries that are hurting people but not causing severe injuries. People are back to work in a few days. But when it comes to these heavy, likely fatal, things like falls, it seems that we've hit this roadblock where it's going to take a big culture shift for these things to change. These hazards are just so dangerous that a fall from heights, really at any height, could be fatal. So, if we're not working at preventing the falls, but we're trying to get better PPE or better adhering to these requirements, that's just mitigating what might happen when these things happen. But really, we need to prevent these things like falls from occurring in the first place if we want all of these fatalities to really decrease over time because it seems like the exposure to them, the occurrence of them, is just so dangerous that it's really hard to mitigate the injury once the event occurs. We really need to get behind that and prevent the incident from happening altogether.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.