“The Administration and many of its allies really do want to put employers in jail.” That’s according to a prominent attorney specializing in workplace safety compliance.
Howard Mavity, a Fisher & Phillips partner, says in a blog post that he and fellow F&P partner Edwin Foulke, head of OSHA from 2006 to 2008, were struck by statements from the administrator of OSHA Region 4 at the recent Georgia Safety, Health and Environmental Conference.
The administrator said he’s recently contacted all of the U.S. Attorneys in his Region to encourage increased criminal prosecution of workplace fatalities and OSHA violations, and he’d be doing the same soon with state attorney generals.
It’s the latter part of that statement that caught Mavity’s and Foulke’s attention.
Criminal prosecution provisions under the OSH Act are weak compared to other federal statutes. To be federally prosecuted for a workplace fatality, it’s usually because the individual either lied to OSHA or fabricated evidence. Violating environmental law in the same case can be another factor leading to criminal charges.
But, according to Mavity, “state and local prosecutors have a much wider array of tools to use to pursue criminal actions against employers.”
Any state or local prosecutor wanting a template on how to do just that need only look into the recent criminal prosecution of Bumble Bee Tuna, according to Mavity.
Is this just a push from one regional OSHA administrator? Nope.
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