|
Documents
Bronx
Company Indicted after near Death of Employee: Junkyard Operator
Accused of Reckless Endangerment and Environmental Crimes
— Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, New York City Police
Department Commissioner Ray Kelly and State Department of
Environmental Conservation Commissioner Erin Crotty today
announced the indictment of a Bronx company for reckless endangerment
and environmental crimes following an incident in which an
employee nearly died from exposure to toxic vapors. (New York
State Department of Law, September 9, 2004)
Rhode
Island Law on Criminal Negligence Includes Workplaces
(Rhode Island Committee on Occupational Safety and Health,
July 2004)
Campaign
to Stop Corporate Killing — Long
prison sentences are supposed to deter crime.
However, the penalty
for an employer who knowingly kills a worker by violating
job safety laws is only six months in jail. Approximately
twice a week in the U.S. an employer commits that crime, perhaps
because prosecutions are rare and the penalty is so limited.
In the last 20 years, fewer than three dozen criminal convictions
have sent killer employers to jail. (NYCOSH Safety
Rep, June 2004)
New
York City Central Labor Council Resolution: Criminal Prosecution
of Employers Who Disregard Workplace Safety and Health Regulations
Resulting in Death, Serious Injury or Illness
(March 2004)
News Charges
Filed in Trench Death: Builder Accused of Knowing Ditch That
Collapsed on Worker in 2003 Was Unsafe — A
well-regarded North Shore builder was charged with manslaughter
yesterday in the death of a Mexican laborer who was instantaneously
buried nearly two years ago when the unshored trench in which
he was told to work collapsed. (Staten Island Advance, November
5, 2005)
Moeves'
OSHA History Raises Questions for Parents of Worker Killed
in Trench Cave-In —
When OSHA announced in February that Moeves Plumbing Inc.
of Cincinnati had been cited and fined $150,000 for serious
and willful violations, it opened old wounds for Jeffrey Walters
and Michelle Marts. Two workers already have died while digging
trenches for the company, the subject of 13 previous OSHA
inspections dating back to 1989. Patrick Walters, the most
recent victim and the only son of Marts and Walters, died
June 14, 2002, only weeks after OSHA cited the company for
willful trenching violations. In 1989, another worker died
while working in a trench for the company. (Occupational Hazards,
March 22, 2005)
Michigan
Construction Company Convicted of 'Willful Criminal Felony
Violation' in Landmark Worker Safety Case — Lanzo
Construction Co. was sentenced to two years' probation in
Oakland County's (Michigan) Sixth Circuit Court for an unprecedented
Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration-related
criminal conviction resulting from a 1999 workplace fatality.
(Occupational Hazards.com, January 24, 2005)
Draft
Corporate Manslaughter Bill to be Proposed for England and
Wales — The U.K. Government announced,
in the Queen’s speech on 23rd November 2004, that it
intended to publish a draft bill which would introduce a new
offence of corporate manslaughter. (UK Trades Union Congress,
November 25, 2004)
Those
Responsible for Deaths at Work Will Get off Scot-Free
— There are criminal sanctions for every other kind
of manslaughter, because the authorities understand that fear
of the law is what stops us from doing other people in. But,
somehow, according to everyone from the CBI to some who have
written on these pages, this doesn't apply to company directors.
Perhaps they belong to a different species. (Guardian, October
5, 2004)
Prosecutor
to Review Fatal Crane Collapse: Criminal Charges a Possible
Outcome — The federal investigation
into a deadly crane collapse during construction on the new
I-280 bridge has been turned over to the Lucas County prosecutor's
office for possible criminal charges. Prosecutor Julia Bates
yesterday confirmed her office has been reviewing documents
compiled by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration
into the Feb. 16 collapse that killed four men and injured
four others. (Toledo Blade, July 30, 2004)
Plea
Agreement Is Reached in Pipe Case —
A day after announcing a second indictment against McWane
Inc., federal prosecutors disclosed Wednesday that a longtime
McWane manager had agreed to cooperate with their investigation
into environmental and safety violations at McWane, one of
the nation's largest manufacturers of cast iron water and
sewer pipe. (New York Times, May 27, 2004)
Justice
Dept. Drops Most Criminal OSHA Referrals
— Critics in Congress and elsewhere have been hammering
OSHA ever since a recent New York Times article revealed that
over the past 20 years, the agency failed to seek criminal
prosecution against 93 percent of the companies whose willful
violations of safety rules caused workers to die. Even if
OSHA referred more cases to the Department of Justice (DOJ)
however, it appears unlikely that many more employers would
face the kind of criminal liability that victims' families
and OSHA critics believe is a requisite for justice. Put simply,
the vast majority of cases OSHA does refer to DOJ are never
prosecuted. While efforts to hold employers criminally responsible
for workplace fatalities have targeted OSHA enforcement, it
is the Department of Justice that must prosecute employers.
This is the first in a series of articles that will examine
the factors impeding DOJ from criminal prosecution of OSHA
cases. (Occupational Hazards.com, February 25, 2004)
Contractor
Jailed for 3½-10½ Years for Killing Five Workers
in Scaffold Collapse — Sentencing
judge says the case had given her an education in how "astonishingly
ineffectual" the federal government has been in protecting
workers' lives. (January 2004)
New
Canadian Criminal Law to Enforce Worker Safety
— Safety concerns were raised about the Westray coal
mine in Nova Scotia in 1991, even before it opened. The most
salient warnings – that coal dust and gas were building
up – were ignored. And then, in 1992, a spark more than
a kilometer below the earth ignited methane gas, causing a
huge explosion that killed 26 miners. Two onsite managers
were charged, but the charges were dropped in 1998. There
was no law holding senior company executives criminally responsible
for ignoring safety warnings. Fast forward to 2003. The law
forces employers, under penalty of criminal charges and jail
time, to take reasonable steps to protect workers from injury
and death. Bill C-45 was passed in Parliament before it recessed
in November and given Royal Assent in Halifax in a ceremony
that included family members of the Westray miners. (Health
and Safety Report, December 2003)
Farm
Death Sparks Manslaughter Charge — Yolo County
prosecutors have filed what is believed to be the California's
first involuntary manslaughter case against a grower in the
death of a farm worker who was killed on the job. The case
was filed against a Woodland-area grower who is facing four
years in prison and $650,000 in fines if he is convicted on
all three counts in the landmark case. Deputy District Attorney
Kyle Hedum said the filing is "quite rare, but it's going
to be more and more common" -- due to a statute that
elevates to a potential felony any serious Labor Code violation
that results in a worker's death. Another four farm worker
deaths in the Central Valley and Northern California are under
investigation, according to Hedum, a staff lawyer with the
California District Attorney's Association who is working
as a "circuit rider" for the agency, helping 34
counties investigate agricultural as well as industrial fatalities.
"These guys have been getting killed left and right up
here for the last 20 years," Hedum said. "The more
I'm out here, the more I'm going to hear about these things."
(Sacramento Bee, December 18, 2001)
EPA/OSHA
Alliance Increases the Danger of Criminal Liability for Employers
— The criminal prosecution of occupational exposure cases
under RCRA's knowing endangerment provision results from two
independent, yet interrelated policies. First, the Environmental
Protection Agency ("EPA") and the Occupational Safety
& Health Administration ("OSHA") have forged
an alliance by entering into two formal agreements which are
referred to as memorandums of understanding ("MOU")
by the agencies. (Environmental Law Alert, August 2000)
Organizations
 Campaign
to Stop Corporate Killing (National Council for Occupational
Safety and Health)
Centre
for Corporate Accountability (U.K.)
New
York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health
Philadelphia
Project on Occupational Safety and Health
Western
New York Council on Occupatiopnal Safety and Health
|
