|
 Printer-Friendly Version
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8151
Total of Significant and Egregious Cases Up Sharply
While working hard to build partnerships with business owners who care
about their workers' safety and health, the Occupational Safety & Health
Administration (OSHA) has simultaneously worked to stringently enforce safety
standards for those who don't.
In the past fiscal year, the number of OSHA citations for very serious
safety violations was up 30 percent. The total of significant and egregious
enforcement cases in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 1996, (FY '96) was up
sharply over the previous year: 165 compared with 125. Significant cases are
those with proposed penalties totaling more than $100,000 and egregious cases
are those where multiple willful violations warrant instance-by-instance
penalties.
Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich said, "When it comes to workplace
safety and health, we will continue to collaborate with responsible business.
But OSHA also must continue to be the cop on the beat. OSHA is carrying out
both responsibilities well."
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Joseph
A. Dear said, "This record should constitute a clear warning to those employers
who may be tempted to neglect the safety and health of their workers that OSHA
will continue to strongly enforce its requirements for protection, with stiff
penalties for violations.
"We also will continue to encourage employers to work with their
employees and OSHA in partnership to improve safety and health in their
worksites. We are already working with employers in 20 states through our
Cooperative Compliance Programs (CCP) to encourage and assist them in
identifying and removing workplace hazards. This concept was successfully
piloted in our 'Maine 200' program in the state of Maine. Traditional OSHA
enforcement is reserved for those employers who do not cooperate in protecting
their workforce."
There were six egregious cases in FY '96 compared with 17 in FY '95. The
FY '96 egregious cases involved:
- DeCoster Egg Farms, of Turner, Maine, $3.6 million in proposed
penalties, for numerous willful violations, including unguarded machinery and
violations of housing requirements for migrant workers;
- Lisbon Contractors, Inc., of Danboro, Pa., $210,900 in proposed
penalties, mainly for violations of the trenching standard;
- Richter's Bakery of San Antonio, Inc., of San Antonio, Texas,
$1,040,000 in proposed penalties, mainly for willful violations of standards
for confined space entry, lockout/tagout of equipment and hazard communication;
- J.M. Cashman, Inc., of Quincy, Mass., $770,000 in proposed
penalties, for failing to provide fall protection for employees at a Boston,
Mass., construction worksite, and failing to ensure that a subcontractor,
Saugus Construction Co., of Georgetown, Mass., provided fall protection for its
employees (a worker was killed in a fall at the site);
- Saugus Construction Co., of Georgetown, Mass., $448,000 in proposed
penalties, for failing to provide fall protection for its employees at the
Boston site; and
- AK Steel Corp., of Middletown, Ohio, $1,015,000, for violations of
the lockout/tagout standard.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
| |
|
