Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit significantly limited the time period in which employers may be cited for recordkeeping violations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“the Act”) in AKM LLC dba Volks Constructors v. Secretary of Labor, Civ. No. 11-1106.  The Court ruled that such violations must be cited within six months of their occurrence, marking a considerable decrease from the previous practice of citing violations from up to five years prior–the period of time during which injury and illness logs must be retained under the Act.  In doing so, the federal appeals court rejected the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission’s decision upholding an enforcement action against Volks Constructors and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency’s (“OSHA”) argument that Volks’s failure to keep injury and illness logs constituted continuing violations.…

Continue Reading D.C. Circuit Rejects Continuing-Violation Theory in OSHA Recordkeeping Cases