1. Before issuing a citation, the Division
may adjust the amount of a proposed penalty as provided in subsection 2 based
on:
(a) The size of the employer;
(b) The good faith of the employer;
(c) The immediate abatement of a hazard;
and
(d) The employer's history of
previous violations.
2.
Except as otherwise provided in this subsection and subsection 4, the
adjustments which may be made to a penalty pursuant to subsection 1 are as
follows:
(a) A reduction based on the number
of employees that are employed by the cited employer, not to exceed a reduction
of 70 percent of the penalty for an employer with 10 or fewer employees. A
penalty may be reduced pursuant to this paragraph for:
(1) A violation that is classified as serious
or within a classification other than serious;
(2) A violation of a willful nature;
or
(3) Repeated
violations.
(b) A
reduction based on the employer's demonstration of good faith in implementing
an effective safety program as described in
NRS
618.383, not to exceed a reduction of 25
percent of the penalty for an employer with a fully implemented and effective
safety program, as determined by the inspector. A penalty may not be reduced
pursuant to this paragraph for:
(1) A
violation of a willful nature; or
(2) Repeated violations.
(c) A reduction based on the immediate
correction by the employer of the cited hazard, not to exceed a reduction of 15
percent of the penalty. For the purposes of this paragraph, an immediate
correction is one that is made not later than 24 hours after the violation is
identified during an inspection. A penalty may not be reduced pursuant to this
paragraph for:
(1) A serious violation of high
gravity;
(2) A violation of a
willful nature;
(3) Repeated
violations;
(4) Failure to abate or
correct a violation which was identified during an inspection;
(5) Failure to report a fatality, the
inpatient hospitalization of one or more employees, the amputation of a part of
an employee's body or an employee's loss of an eye pursuant to the requirements
of
NRS
618.378; or
(6) Failure or a major deficiency in:
(I) Establishing a written safety program
pursuant to the requirements of
NRS
618.383; or
(II) Carrying out the requirements of the
program.
(d) An
adjustment based on the cited employer's history of previous safety and health
inspections within the 5 years immediately preceding the issuance of the
citation, as follows:
(1) A reduction of 10
percent may be applied to the penalty for an employer which has:
(I) Been inspected previously with no
citations issued; or
(II) Been
cited previously for violations which are classified as other than
serious.
(2) No
adjustment may be applied to the penalty for an employer which has been cited
for a serious violation not of high gravity.
(3) An increase of 10 percent may be applied
to the penalty for an employer which has been cited previously for:
(I) A serious violation of high
gravity;
(II) Repeated
violations;
(III) A violation of a
willful nature; or
(IV) Failure to
abate or correct violations that were previously cited.
3. Except as otherwise
provided in subsection 4, adjustments made pursuant to subsection 2, if any,
must be considered and applied in the order set forth in subsection 2.
4. A penalty may not be reduced to
an amount less than the allowable monetary amount of the corresponding civil
penalty for the applicable violation of
29 U.S.C. §
666, including any adjustments made to the
civil penalty pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act
Improvements Act of 2015,
Pub. L.
114-74.
5. Each district manager retains the
authority to determine the appropriateness of any adjustment to a penalty and
may refuse to consider an adjustment to a penalty if the district manager
believes that imposing the full amount of the penalty is necessary to achieve
the appropriate deterrent effect.
Added to NAC by Div. of Industrial Relations by
R069-20A,
eff. 4/11/2022
