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 25 cited OSHA standards and laws for general industry

Every year, OSHA compiles statistics on cited standards and laws. The following is preliminary information on the top ones during fiscal year 2025:

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. Abatement Verification — 1903.19
8. Personal Protective Equipment (General) — 1910.132
9. Electrical (Wiring and Equipment) — 1910.305
10. General Duty Clause — Section 5(a)(1) of Occupational Safety and Health Act
11. Fatality and Severe Injury Reporting — 1910.39
12. Exit Route Maintenance, Safeguards, and Operational Features — 1910.37
13. Portable Fire Extinguishers — 1910.157
14. Duty to Have Fall Protection and Falling Object Protection — 1910.28
15. Respirable Crystalline Silica —1910.1053
16. Walking-working Surfaces (General) — 1910.22
17. Occupational Noise Exposure — 1910.95
18. Mechanical Power Transmission Apparatus — 1910.219
19. Medical Services and First Aid — 1910.151
20. Electronic Submission of Injury/Illness Records — 1904.41
21. Permit-required Confined Spaces — 1910.146
22. Process Safety Management — 1910.119
23. Bloodborne Pathogens — 1910.1030
24. Abrasive Wheel Machinery — 1910.215
25. Spray Finishing Using Flammable and Combustible Materials — 1910.107