Since Congress has been concentrating on jobs, health care and global warming — and not on worker-safety legislation — the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has pulled out its own tool to punish companies found lacking in safety: criminal charges against owners.
Example: C.A. Franc Construction, based in Valencia, PA. OSHA has fined the company $539,000 in connection with a roofer’s fatal fall.
The company owner, Christopher Franc, also faces up to $250,000 in criminal fines and six years in jail after he pleaded guilty in court to violating safety regulations.
Last year, a roofer employed by Franc fell 42 feet while laying shingles. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.
OSHA found Franc failed to provide any fall protection to its employees working on a pitched roof 40 feet above the ground.
How did the OSHA fine add up to more than a half-million dollars? The agency cited Franc for 10 per-instance willful violations, one for each employee working unprotected on the roof. OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for safety regulations.
OSHA has also promised to use criminal prosecution more often to punish companies than it has previously.
BusinessBrief.com delivers the latest business news once a week to the inboxes of over 180,000 executives.
Click here to sign up and start your FREE subscription to BusinessBrief!
advertisement
Tags: criminal prosecution, enforcement, OSHA
February 25th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Let’s see, one careless construction company owner gets a substantial fine for an admitted offense. The country avoids having several hundred highly paid representatives and an unknown number of paid pundits wrestle to a draw for 6 months over whether and how to legislate an end to careless idiots.
Am I being offered my choice here?
March 4th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
It’s about time, in my opinion. The “penalties” for maiming or even killing one’s employees have been a joke for too many years. If it’s cheaper to pay when they die than to pay to prevent them from dying, guess which one far too many employers choose? Now, perhaps such choices will be somewhat more meaningful for those in a position to make them. I certainly hope so.
March 13th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
I agree with Gerry Manning. Employers have been getting away with murder for decades. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for not providing and enforcing the use of fall protection and shoring in trenches, among other common death traps. If it really was just one “careless construction company owner” that would be one thing, but it is an attitude common among almost all companies.