Virginia Administrative Code › Title 16 - LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT › Agency 25 - SAFETY AND HEALTH CODES BOARD › Chapter 60 - ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATION FOR THE VIRGINIA OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH PROGRAM › Part I - Definitions › Section 16VAC25-60-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms when used in this chapter
					 shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates
					 otherwise:
"Abatement period" means the period of time defined or set
					 out in the citation for correction of a violation.
"Board" means the Safety and Health Codes Board.
"Bureau of Labor Statistics" means the Bureau of Labor
					 Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.
"Citation" means the notice to an employer that the
					 commissioner has found a condition or conditions that violate Title 40.1 of the
					 Code of Virginia or the standards, rules or regulations established by the
					 commissioner or the board.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Labor and
					 Industry. Except where the context clearly indicates the contrary, any such
					 reference shall include his authorized representatives.
"Commissioner of Labor and Industry" means only the
					 individual who is Commissioner of Labor and Industry.
"Department" means the Virginia Department of Labor and
					 Industry.
"De minimis violation" means a violation that has no direct
					 or immediate relationship to safety and health.
"Employee" means an employee of an employer who is employed
					 in a business of his employer.
"Employee representative" means a person specified by
					 employees to serve as their representative.
"Employer" means any person or entity engaged in business
					 who has employees but does not include the United States.
"Establishment" means, for the purpose of recordkeeping
					 requirements, a single physical location where business is conducted or where
					 services or industrial operations are performed, for example, factory, mill,
					 store, hotel, restaurant, movie theater, farm, ranch, bank, sales office,
					 warehouse, or central administrative office. Where distinctly separate
					 activities are performed at a single physical location, such as contract
					 activities operated from the same physical location as a lumberyard, each
					 activity is a separate establishment. In the public sector, an establishment is
					 either (i) a single physical location where a specific governmental function is
					 performed; or (ii) that location which is the lowest level where attendance or
					 payroll records are kept for a group of employees who are in the same specific
					 organizational unit, even though the activities are carried on at more than a
					 single physical location.
"Failure to abate" means that the employer has failed to
					 correct a cited violation within the period permitted for its
					 correction.
"FOIA" means the Freedom of Information Act.
"Gravity based penalty" means an unadjusted penalty that is
					 calculated based on the severity of the hazard and the probability that an
					 injury or illness would result from the hazard.
"High gravity violation" means a violation with a gravity
					 based penalty calculated at the statutory maximums contained in subsections H,
					 I, and J of §
										40.1-49.4
					 of the Code of Virginia.
"Imminent danger condition" means any condition or practice
					 in any place of employment such that a danger exists which could reasonably be
					 expected to cause death or serious physical harm immediately or before the
					 imminence of such danger can be eliminated through standard enforcement
					 procedures provided by Title 40.1 of the Code of Virginia.
"OSHA" means the Occupational Safety and Health
					 Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor.
"Other violation" means a violation which is not, by
					 itself, a serious violation within the meaning of the law but which has a
					 direct or immediate relationship to occupational safety or health.
"Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership,
					 association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture,
					 government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and
					 any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality
					 thereof.
"Public employee" means any employee of a public employer.
					 Volunteer members of volunteer fire departments, pursuant to §
										27-42
					 of the Code of Virginia, members of volunteer rescue squads who serve without
					 pay, and other volunteers pursuant to the Virginia State Government Volunteers
					 Act are not public employees. Prisoners confined in jails controlled by any
					 political subdivision of the Commonwealth and prisoners in institutions
					 controlled by the Department of Corrections are not public employees unless
					 employed by a public employer in a work-release program pursuant to §
										53.1-60
					 or
					 53.1-131
					 of the Code of Virginia.
"Public employer" means the Commonwealth of Virginia,
					 including its agencies, authorities, or instrumentalities or any political
					 subdivision or public body.
"Recordable occupational injury and illness" means
(i) a fatality, regardless of the time between the injury
					 and death or the length of illness;
(ii) a nonfatal case that results in lost work days; or
(iii) a nonfatal case without lost work days which results
					 in transfer to another job or termination of employment, which requires medical
					 treatment other than first aid, or involves loss of consciousness or
					 restriction of work or motion. This category also includes any diagnosed
					 occupational illness which is reported to the employer but is not otherwise
					 classified as a fatality or lost work day case.
"Repeated violation" means a violation deemed to exist in a
					 place of employment that is substantially similar to a previous violation of a
					 law, standard or regulation that was the subject of a prior final order against
					 the same employer. A repeated violation results from an inadvertent or
					 accidental act, since a violation otherwise repeated would be willful.
"Serious violation" means a violation deemed to exist in a
					 place of employment if there is a substantial probability that death or serious
					 physical harm could result from a condition which exists, or from one or more
					 practices, means, methods, operations, or processes which have been adopted or
					 are in use, in such place of employment, unless the employer did not, and could
					 not with the exercise of reasonable diligence, know of the presence of the
					 violation. The term "substantial probability" does not refer to the likelihood
					 that illness or injury will result from the violative condition but to the
					 likelihood that, if illness or injury does occur, death or serious physical
					 harm will be the result.
"Standard" means an occupational safety and health standard
					 which requires conditions, or the adoption or use of one or more practices,
					 means, methods, operations, or processes, reasonably necessary or appropriate
					 to provide safe or healthful employment and places of employment.
"VOSH" means Virginia Occupational Safety and
					 Health.
"Willful violation" means a violation deemed to exist in a
					 place of employment where (i) the employer committed an intentional and
					 knowing, as contrasted with inadvertent, violation and the employer was
					 conscious that what he was doing constituted a violation; or (ii) the employer,
					 even though not consciously committing a violation, was aware that a hazardous
					 condition existed and made no reasonable effort to eliminate the
					 condition.
"Working days" means Monday through Friday, excluding legal
					 holidays, Saturday, and Sunday.
Statutory Authority: §§
												40.1-2.1,
						40.1-6,
						and
						40.1-22
						of the Code of Virginia; Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 ( P.L.
						91-596 ).