Recently, we learned that knowingly putting your employees in danger can land contractors a prison sentence of two years for involuntary manslaughter. Well, OSHA doesn’t take too kindly to being lied to either.
On March 18th, 2013, a five man crew in Alabama was working on a roofing project when a severe thunderstorm began. 3 of the 5 workers were injured during the storm: one lost his left arm, another suffered a shoulder injury, and the third fell 30 feet to the ground and suffered broken wrists, ribs, tail bone, and pelvis.
The supervisor of that crew told OSHA that he had been on site at the time of the incident and that his men had been properly tied off and equipped with fall arrest protection. More than a year later, on July 23, 2014, OSHA officially cited the contractor with six safety violations after their investigation. Fines accumulated from the 6 citations totaled $55,000
(1) Count of failing to provide workers with fall protection
(4) Counts of exposing workers to severe weather conditions
(1) Count of failing to notify OSHA after the workers were admitted to the hospital
Due to the investigation, OSHA had determined that the supervisor had actually purchased the fall protection equipment after the injuries occurred, as opposed to 5 days prior as he told the administrator. On August 6th, the supervisor was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and 30 hours of community service.
Let this be a lesson to everyone, if you’re going to do something stupid, it’s best not to lie about it.
