Employees do the darnedest things. But, you’d hope they wouldn’t do them in front of an OSHA inspector. Isn’t there some way you can defend your company against an OSHA citation and penalty when there is truly no defense to the employee’s misconduct? Well, there is—the “unpreventable employee misconduct defense” may be of help, but only if you meet the four elements necessary for the defense. As you will read, [...]
A national homebuilder was recently slapped with a $741,000.00 fine for Clean Water Act violations. This is obviously a substantial penalty, and I wonder whether it could have been avoided. The EPA filed suit against national homebuilder, Toll Brothers, alleging over 600 storm water violations. The violations were discovered through site inspections and the EPA’s review of documentation submitted by Toll Brothers. You read that correctly, documentation submitted by the [...]
Last month a business owner was convicted in what is being heralded as the largest Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) fraud case in history. The scheme lasted over 15 years and involved over $136 million in government contracts. But, is this simply a story of fraud or does it expose a much larger issue -- a major flaw in the DBE program? The case was filed against Joseph Nagle, the president, [...]
Last month, OSHA visited America’s Fiberglass Animals in Minden for a follow-up visit. To put it lightly, the follow-up visit did not go well. OSHA slapped America’s Fiberglass Animals with nearly $170,000.00 in penalties. This hefty penalty certainly makes me wonder how you are doing in your OSHA compliance. Here is a breakdown of the penalties. They fell into three categories: • $63,000.00 related to fines for failure to abate [...]
For those of you who have been following the Robert Knapp/Equitable Building saga in Des Moines, it appears to have finally come to an end. By way of background, Mr. Knapp was accused of violating the Clean Air Act and a number of OSHA regulations when he had employees remove asbestos without wearing appropriate protective equipment. Mr. Knapp agreed to pay of $500,000.00 fine for regulatory violations. Mr. Knapp also [...]
I’m sure you all recall OSHA’s big press release last year when it announced revisions to its penalty framework to increase penalties. Well, OSHA is now using the revised framework and the penalties are stiff. A review of OSHA penalties in Region 7, covering Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, shows significant penalties. A stucco company in Kansas was fined $147,000 for two repeat and one serious violation where employees [...]
