Harsher penalties sought for safety violations
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4/29/2008 -
WASHINGTON — Employers who intentionally disregard hazards that cost workers their lives should face the threat of felony prosecution and stiff prison sentences, lawmakers said Tuesday.That almost never happens now, witnesses told members of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
It's more costly to fish for tuna in the wrong waters of the South Pacific than to allow dangerous conditions that contribute to an employee's death, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the committee's chairman.
The median penalty for a workplace fatality last year was $3,675, according to a new report titled "Discounting Death: OSHA's Failure to Punish Safety Violations that Kill Workers," issued by Kennedy's committee staff.
"Workers' lives are obviously worth far more than that," Kennedy said. "Employers who ignore their employees' safety should pay a penalty that will force them to change their negligent ways. It's the only realistic way to save lives."
Kennedy introduced legislation last year that would stiffen penalties against companies that violate workplace safety laws, and allow for felony prosecutions in the worst cases. Sponsors say they plan to keep pushing that bill this year.
In an investigation of working conditions in the poultry industry, The Charlotte Observer showed how minimal fines, weak enforcement and declining inspections have allowed companies to ignore hazards that can kill and injure workers.
At Tuesday's sometimes-emotional hearing, parents who lost children in workplace accidents told of their heartbreak and frustration while seeking justice.
Donald Coit Smith's 22-year-old son was electrocuted March 26, 2005, at a Sanderson Farms poultry processing plant in Bryan, Texas. A mechanic's helper, Donald W. Smith was assigned to disconnect wires from an electric motor powered with 480 volts of electricity.
"He was left alone to do a job, no supervision," his father said after the hearing. "He did what he was told and he paid for it with his life."
Smith said "mad doesn't begin to describe" his reaction upon learning that a proposed $31,000 penalty against Sanderson Farms was negotiated down to $12,000.
Mike Cockrell, chief financial officer for Sanderson Farms, called it "a very unfortunate accident" but said the company puts employee safety "at the very top of our list when we come into work every day."
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said it would be unfair to prosecute companies on felony charges when employees are partially to blame for their injuries. Sometimes, he noted, alcohol and drugs play a role in accidents.
An OSHA official contacted after the hearing characterized it as a partisan attack.
"Election-year political theater cannot mask the truth that under this administration, workplace illness, injury and fatality rates are the lowest in OSHA's history," Sharon Worthy, a spokeswoman for the Department of Labor, wrote in an e-mail. "This administration's pro-worker safety record is an inconvenient truth for the AFL-CIO and their partisan allies who are peddling dishonest political attacks — masquerading as 'reports' — to the media."
Since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, about 341,000 workers have died on the job, but only 68 cases — less than one-tenth of 1 percent — have been criminally prosecuted, said Peg Seminario, director of safety and health at the AFL-CIO.
