(1) If the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services or an authorized representative of the director has reason to believe, after inspection or investigation of a place of employment, that an employer has violated any state occupational safety or health law, regulation, standard, rule or order, the director or the authorized representative shall with reasonable promptness issue to such employer a citation, and notice of proposed civil penalty, if any, to be assessed under this chapter, and fix a reasonable time for correction of the alleged violation.

Ask an employment law question, get an answer ASAP!
Thousands of highly rated, verified employment lawyers
Specialties include: Employment Law, EEOC, Pension and Compensation, Harassment Law, Discrimination Law, Termination Law, General Legal and more.
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

(2) Each citation and notice required by subsection (1) of this section shall be in writing, shall be mailed to or served upon the employer or a registered agent of the employer, and shall contain:

(a) The date and place of the alleged violation;

(b) A plain statement of the facts upon which the citation is based;

(c) A reference to the law, regulation, rule, standard or order relied upon;

(d) The amount, if any, of the proposed civil penalty;

(e) The time, if any, fixed for the correction of the alleged violation;

(f) Notice of the employer’s right to contest the citation, the proposed civil penalty and the period of time fixed for correction of the alleged violation; and

(g) Notice of any affected employee’s right to contest the period of time fixed for correction of the alleged violation.

(3) No citation or notice of proposed civil penalty may be issued under this section after the expiration of 180 days following the start of the inspection or investigation, but this shall not prevent the issuance, at any time, of an order to correct that violation or the issuance of a citation for a subsequent violation.

(4) If the director has reason to believe that an employer has failed to correct a violation within the period of time fixed for correction, or within the time fixed in a subsequent order granting an extension of time to correct the violation, the director shall consider such failure as a separate and continuing violation and shall issue a citation and notice of proposed civil penalty, if any, to be assessed pursuant to ORS § 654.086 (1)(d).

(5) The director may prescribe procedures for the issuance of a notice in lieu of citation to inform an employer and employees of a minimal violation that has no direct or immediate relationship to occupational safety or health.

(6) Each citation and notice, or copies thereof, issued under ORS § 654.001 to 654.295, 654.412 to 654.423 and 654.750 to 654.780 shall be posted by the employer, immediately upon receipt, in a conspicuous manner in a sufficient number of locations in the place or places of employment to reasonably inform employees of such citation and notice.

(7) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the director or authorized representative of the director shall deliver to the operator of a farm labor camp a copy of any notice, evaluation report or citation resulting from the inspection. [1973 c.833 § 17; 1981 c.696 § 4; 1999 c.72 § 1; 1999 c.1017 § 4]

[1973 c.833 § 17a; repealed by 1977 c.804 § 55]

[Repealed by 1973 c.833 § 34 (654.290 enacted in lieu of 654.040, 654.065, 654.070, 654.075 and 654.080)]