On August 19, 2008, OSHA published a proposed rule designed to clarify that noncompliance with the personal protective equipment and training requirements in the general industry, construction, and maritime standards will expose employers to liability and penalties on a per-employee basis. Currently, an employer may receive one penalty for failure to train or provide personal protective equipment for multiple employees. Under this proposed rule, an employer could receive a separate penalty for each employee. The proposed rule, however, does not add any new compliance obligations for employers with respect to providing new equipment or training programs. It simply changes the liability risk for any failure to comply with existing regulations.In particular, the proposed rule makes two significant changes to the existing regulations.

• Introduces an identical new section in Parts 1910, 1915, 1917, 1918, and 1926, “Compliance duties owed to each employee” (§§1910.9 ,1915.9, 1917.9, 1918.9, and 1926.20(f)), clarifying that employers have separate compliance duties for each employee with respect to personal protective and training requirements.
• Revises training provisions in the general industry, construction, and maritime standards that require employers to institute or provide a training program for “all employees” to require employers to train “each employee.”

OSHA has also asked for public comments in connection with this proposed standard. The comment period will remain open until September 18, 2008. Comments may be submitted in three ways:  1) post the comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov/, 2) send three copies to the OSHA Docket Office, Room N-2625, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20210, or 3) fax the comments to 202-693-1648. Comments must include the Agency name and Docket Number for this rulemaking:  OSHA-2008-0031.