Citations describe OSHA requirements allegedly violated, list any proposed penalties, and give a deadline for correcting the alleged hazards.

The compliance officer will give you a call approximately two weeks before you can expect the violations to be sent in the mail. OSHA sends citations of proposed penalties by certified mail. Employers are required to post a copy of each citation at or near the place a violation occurred, for three days or until the violation is abated, whichever is longer.

Instance-by-instance citations

It should be noted that OSHA can cite violations as instance-by-instance (IBI). An instance would relate to each machine, employee, location, entry, etc. that violates a standard or when instances of the violation could not be abated by a single method of abatement.

An April 17, 2024, OSHA enforcement memo, "Instance-by-Instance Citation Policy for Serious, Repeat, and Other-than-Serious Violations," says the agency may cite violations IBI when one or more of the factors below are met:

• The violations are related to an incident that resulted in a fatality, catastrophe, or permanently disabling injury/illness;
• The employer has a history of willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate violations;
• The inspection revealed one or more willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate violation(s), or a significant number of serious violations; or
• The inspection revealed widespread recordkeeping deficiencies (for which IBI recordkeeping citation items may be proposed).

Citations at multi-employer worksites

On multi-employer worksites, more than one employer may be citable for a hazardous condition that violates an OSHA standard. Under the agency’s Multi-Employer Citation Policy (CPL 02-00-124), OSHA will first determine whether each of the site employers is a creating, exposing, correcting, or controlling employer. If an employer falls into one of these categories, it has obligations with respect to OSHA requirements, and the agency will determine if the employer’s actions were sufficient to meet those obligations.

Top 20 cited OSHA general industry standards under 29 CFR 1910

OSHA compiles statistics on cited standards at www.osha.gov/ords/imis/citedstandard.html. Search NAICS 999999 to view all cited standards for the previous fiscal year. While other requirements under 29 CFR 1903 and 1904 and Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act may apply, the following list provides preliminary information on the 20 most frequently cited standards under Part 1910 during fiscal year 2026:

1. Hazard Communication — 1910.1200
2. Lockout/Tagout — 1910.147
3. Respiratory Protection — 1910.134
4. Powered Industrial Trucks — 1910.178
5. Machine Guarding (General) — 1910.212
6. Electrical Systems Design (General) — 1910.303
7. Personal Protective Equipment (General) — 1910.132
8. Electrical (Wiring and Equipment) — 1910.305
9. Duty to Have Fall Protection and Falling Objects Protection — 1910.28
10. Exit Route Maintenance, Safeguards, and Operational Features — 1910.37
11. Portable Fire Extinguishers — 1910.157
12. Walking-working Surfaces (General) — 1910.22
13. Permit-required Confined Spaces — 1910.146
14. Respirable Crystalline Silica — 1910.1053
15. Occupational Noise Exposure — 1910.95
16. Medical Services and First Aid — 1910.151
17. Mechanical Power Transmission Apparatus — 1910.219
18. Process Safety Management — 1910.119
19. Abrasive Wheel Machinery — 1910.215
20. Lead — 1910.1025