An Obama-era Deputy Assistant Secretary of OSHA who noticed a drastic reduction in the number of press releases from the agency announcing fines against companies for safety violations is taking matters into his own hands and publishing them on his own website. Jordan Barab notes that OSHA has issued roughly 200 citations for $40,000 or above since January 20, 2017, but has only issued notice of a single violation, on April 12: a $1.5 million citation to Atlantic Drain Service Co. for killing two workers in a trench collapse. "During the Obama administration, OSHA’s policy was to issue a press release for any citation greater than $40,000," writes Barab. "Apparently the new threshold is $1.5 million (preferably along with criminal indictments by the state where the tragedy occurred)."
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