Fall Protection: OSHA's Top Safety Violation in 2024

For the 14th year in a row, Fall Protection—General Requirements has topped the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2024.

The preliminary data was presented by Scott Ketcham, Director of Directorate of Enforcement Programs for OSHA, at this year’s 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo.

“While incredible advancements are made in safety each year, we continue to see many of the same types of violations appear on OSHA’s Top 10 list,” said Lorraine Martin, NSC president and CEO. “As a safety community, it’s critical we come together to acknowledge these persistent trends and identify solutions to better protect our workforces.”

The Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for FY 2024 are:

1. Fall Protection–General Requirements (1926.501): 6,307 violations;
2. Hazard Communication (1910.1200): 2,888;
3. Ladders (1926.1053): 2,573;
4. Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 2,470;
5. Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 2,443;
6. Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 2,248;
7. Fall Protection–Training Requirements (1926.503): 2,050;
8. Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,873;
9. Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment–Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,814; and
10. Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,541.

A more in-depth analysis of the Top 10 violations for 2024 will be published in next month’s edition of Safety+Health magazine.

Past Numbers

Last year, Hazard Communication took the second spot with 3,213 violations in fiscal year 2023, followed by Ladders (2,978) and Scaffolding (2,859) with the third and fourth rankings, respectively.

In 2022, Hazard Communication citations came in at No. 2, with 2,682 violations in fiscal year 2022. Ladders (2,471) and Respiratory Protection (2,430) took No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.

In 2021, Respiratory Protection came in at No. 2, counting 2,527 violations that year. Hazard Communication, however, fell from the No. 2 in 2020 to the No. 5 spot with 1,947 violations.

In 2020, Respiratory Protection violations came in at the No. 3 spot, reporting 2,649 violations. This was followed by Scaffolding (2,538) and Ladders (2,129), which have been trading places on the Top 10 list for the last several years.