OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement program included 423 companies as of July 1, 2014. This program, initiated in 2010, had only 343 companies on it in 2013. This is a 23% increase, and is likely not a good indicator of safety for American companies.
OSHA can control members of SVEP through return inspections to monitor compliance or new inspections of a company’s other workplaces for different requirements. SVEP primarily includes construction and manufacturing firms, and mostly smaller companies within those categories; the industry and size profiles of companies have not changed much over time.
Company response rates for SVEP enrollment have also not varied. Companies in the SVEP 
program contested their citations at about a 48% rate, whereas all OSHA inspected companies did so at a rate of only about 6%.
All SVEP companies spend at least 3 years in the program, and will remain enrolled if any serious violations are reported during that time. Companies are involuntary listed after at least two repeat citations or failure to abate notifications about “high emphasis hazards.” This includes falls, amputations, grain entrapment, trenching and combustible dust exposure.
An accident that hospitalizes at least three workers wherein a found willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violation occurred can also be cause for enrollment. If an inspector cites an employer as an “egregious” violator, every violation is treated separately and individually causes enlistment. Three or more willful or repeat violations or failure-to-abate notices are written during an inspection that are related to potential releases of a highly hazardous chemical may also result in listing.
However, the rising number of member companies on this list may not be a bad thing. It certainly could correspond to a rising number of overall safety hazards, but it also may simply be an indicator of better hazard reporting practices. No matter what the cause of rising numbers, however, the program has only been around for a few years, so there is as of yet no good data on how successful it has been.
