Well AMERICA start paying for Safety NON-compliance here is your fine!

In Fiscal Year 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor referred or assisted with the criminal prosecution of 27 cases involving worker deaths – the highest number in DOL’s history. However, since there were more than 4,000 worker deaths during the same period, criminal prosecution in such cases is still very rare.

These statistics were highlighted recently in the annual AFL-CIO report, Death on the Job.

Since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, only 88 worker death cases have been prosecuted under the act with defendants serving a total of 100 months in jail. During the same period, there were more than 390,000 workplace fatalities. OSHA says this company “has shown a pattern of defiance” toward safety standards since 2000. When you add the latest OSHA fines to the company’s previous ones, the total come to more than $1 million.

At Lloyd Industries’ Montgomeryville, PA, location last July, a die dropped on a worker’s right hand, resulting in the amputation of three fingers.

OSHA inspected and issued $822,000 in fines for 13 willful, 4 serious and 7 other-than-serious violations.

Six of the willful violations were for missing guards on six machines. Another three willful violations were per instance fines for failure to obtain baseline hearing tests for employees.

Yet another willful fine was a General Duty Clause violation for allowing employees to operate a press brake with an unprotected foot pedal actuator. OSHA says this exposed workers to amputation hazards.

On Oct. 11, 2012, Jose Melena, 62, entered a 35-foot-long oven as part of his job at Bumble Bee’s Santa Fe Springs plant.

Co-workers didn’t know Melena was inside. They loaded carts containing about 12,000 pounds of tuna into the oven, closed the door and started it.

During a two-hour sterilization process, the oven’s temperature rose to about 270 degrees. A co-worker discovered Melena’s severely burned remains.

If convicted of the charges, Florez and Rodriguez face a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Bumble Bee faces a maximum fine of $1.5 million.

In spring 2014, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey launched a new program to send investigators and prosecutors to the scenes of workplace deaths and environmental threats. Staffers from the OSHA and Environmental Crimes Rollout Program visit the sites immediately after incidents are reported. The staffers help preserve evidence and document eyewitness accounts. The investigators and prosecutors work with Cal/OSHA staff.

Cal/OSHA issued $73,995 in fines to Bumble Bee for six violations, five of them serious, for failing to:

• perform inspections or audits related to the energy control procedures for the production area
• determine whether the industrial ovens constituted permit-required confined spaces
• post signs or notify employees regarding the confined space created by the ovens
• develop and implement a written permit-required confined space program
• implement permit-required confined space program elements as mandated, and
• provide permit-required confined space training to employee working inside the ovens.

 By comparison, in FY 2014, EPA initiated 271 criminal enforcement cases under federal environmental laws and 187 people were charged. That resulted in 155 years of jail time and $63 million in fines and restitution – more cases, fines and jail time in one year than in OSHA’s entire history.

Under the OSH Act, criminal prosecution is limited to two situations:

• when a willful violation results in a worker’s death, or
• when false statements are made in required reports.

The maximum jail time is six months, and the cases are considered misdemeanors.

In federal environmental laws, criminal penalties apply in cases where there is “knowing endangerment.” The laws make those violations felonies.

Some of the largest criminal cases in which workers were killed or endangered on the job were prosecuted under environmental statutes, such as the 2005 Texas City, TX, explosion at a BP refinery that killed 15 workers.

OSHA fines in fatality cases are often not very large. In FY 2014, the average total penalty per OSHA fatality inspection (federal and state plans) was $10,640.

Several state plans had larger fatality fine averages:

• Arizona: $36,969
• California: $16,738
• Hawaii: $22,779
• Minnesota: 20,184
• Tennessee: $15,039, and
• Wyoming: $12,184.

There are six specific categories of OSHA violations, each of which is associated with a penalty:

1. De Minimis Violation

Not as serious as those affecting employee safety and health, a de minimis violation is a technical violation of OSHA rules that do not incur fines or issue citations. This is the least serious class of violations. Inspectors will verbally inform employers about de minimis violations and list them on the employer’s case inspection file.

Example: a ladder with 13 inches between rungs rather than 12 inches is a de minimis violation.

1. Other-than-serious Violation

This is a violation that has a direct correlation with job safety and health, but is unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm. The maximum penalty for each other-than-serious violation is $7,000. However, inspectors can choose not to levy a fine or reduce the penalty by as much as 95% depending on the employer’s good faith (demonstrated efforts to comply with OSHA standards), history of previous violations, and the size of business. When the adjusted penalty amounts to less than $100, no penalty is applied.

Example: failure to provide copies of safety regulations and failure to post required documentation in work areas is considered an other-than-serious violation.

1. Serious Violation

A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and that the employer knew or should have known about the hazard and did not remedy the situation. A mandatory penalty of up to $7,000 is required for each serious violation. This amount can be adjusted based on the employer’s good faith, history of previous violations, size of business, and the gravity of the alleged violation.

Example: slipping and tripping on hazards, failure to provide adequate equipment training, electrical hazards, noise hazards, and exposure to hazardous chemicals are considered serious violations.

1. Willful Violation

When an employer knowingly commits a violation or commits with plain indifference to the law, it is considered a willful violation. The employer must either know that what they are doing constitutes a violation, or are aware that a hazardous condition existed and made no reasonable effort to eliminate it. Penalties for each willful violations can range from $5,000 to $70,000 depending on severity. Like other violations, the penalty can be adjusted downward depending on the size of the business and its history of previous violations. However, usually no credit is given for good faith. If an employee is killed, the violation becomes a criminal offense with a minimum fine of $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for a corporation and potential imprisonment for up to six months.

Example: a fatal crushing accident because the employer did not implement adequate safety procedures for equipment that had caused prior crushing injuries is a willful violation.

1. Repeated Violation

If an employer has been previously cited for a particular violation and a subsequent inspection within the following five years reveals another identical or very similar violation, the employer has committed a repeated violation. The original citation must be final; a citation under contest may not serve as the basis for a subsequent repeated violation. Inspectors can fine the employer up to $70,000 for each repeated violation.

 Failure to Abate Prior Violation

When an employer receives a violation citation, the citation includes a date by which the employer must remedy the situation. If the employer does not do so on the before the specified date, the employer is liable to be fined $7,000 for each day the violation continues beyond the prescribed abatement date.