§659 Enforcement procedures

Summary

If an inspection leads to a citation, the Secretary must send the employer a certified letter soon after the inspection ends. The letter will say what penalty is proposed and that the employer has 15 working days to tell the Secretary if it wants to contest the citation or penalty. If the employer does not respond in 15 working days, and no employee or employee representative files a related notice in that time, the citation and penalty become a final order of the Commission and cannot be reviewed by any court or agency. The same 15‑working‑day notice rule applies if the Secretary says the employer failed to fix a violation. If the employer contests, or an employee or representative timely says the time to fix is unreasonable, the Secretary must notify the Commission right away. The Commission must hold a hearing and then issue an order that can affirm, change, cancel, or provide other relief. That order becomes final 30 days after it is issued. If an employer shows it made a good faith effort to fix the problem but could not finish for reasons beyond its control, the Secretary, after a hearing, must affirm or modify the fix requirements. Affected employees or their representatives must be allowed to participate as parties in the hearing.