Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, OSHA NEWS—$308K in fines for fall, machine fatalities; whistleblower wins back wages, (Jan 31, 2025)

By Jonathan Anderson

The unrelated fatalities occurred in Massachusetts and Alabama. OSHA also ordered a Pennsylvania employer to reinstate an employee and pay them back wages and damages following a whistleblower safety complaint.

In the waning days of the last administration, OSHA cited two companies in Massachusetts and Alabama for unrelated employee deaths involving fall and machine hazards, with proposed penalties totaling $308,806. Separately, the federal agency ordered a Pennsylvania employer to reinstate an employee and pay them $221,114 in back wages and damages after they were fired for refusing to engage in unsafe practices. OSHA also announced that an administrative law judge has affirmed a citation and $6,000 penalty against a Massachusetts employer for exposing employees to potential falls.

Fatal fall. OSHA has cited NER Construction Management Inc. for failing to protect employees from fall hazards at a construction work site in Boston, Massachusetts, with $115,221 in proposed penalties, an amount set by federal statute.

A 44-year-old construction worker was fatally injured after falling approximately 50 feet while removing netting from a pipe scaffold. The employee was wearing a safety harness, but the employer failed to ensure the worker’s harness was properly tied off and did not conduct mandatory compliance inspections, according to OSHA.

The agency cited NER Construction Management for six serious violations and one other-than-serious safety and health violation for failing to:

• Ensure workers used safety harnesses as required.

• Designate a competent person to inspect job site materials and equipment.

• Inspect the scaffold systems for defects before the day’s work shift began.

• Ensure scaffolds were erected, moved, dismantled, or altered only by experienced and trained employees under a competent person’s supervision.

• Install a horizontal lifeline under the supervision of a qualified person to prevent fall hazards.

• Rig personal fall arrest systems to stop an employee from a free fall of more than 6 feet.

Fatal machine incident. In an unrelated development, OSHA cited Haier US Appliance Solutions Inc., dba GE Appliances, for exposing workers to machine safety hazards at a workplace in Decatur, Alabama, with $193,585 in proposed penalties.

A 58-year-old front-line supervisor died in July 2024 while trying to service a door molding machine. Investigators found the company allowed workers to bypass the machine’s safety doors and did not use required procedures to prevent employee injuries in the carousel-like machine.

OSHA cited the employer for one willful violation for failing to follow lockout/tagout procedures to de-energize the machine before allowing service or maintenance. Inspectors also cited the company for two serious violations for permitting employees to bypass interlocking safety doors to gain access to the machine and for not maintaining annual inspections for lockout/tagout procedures.

Since 2016, inspections at two Haier US Appliance Solutions’ manufacturing facilities in Louisville, Kentucky, and in Decatur have found numerous machine safety violations, including two repeated and two serious violations of lockout/tagout requirements after a 55-year-old worker’s fatality in Louisville in February 2019, according to OSHA.

Haier US Appliance Solutions Inc. is a subsidiary of China-based Haier Smart Home Company.

NER Construction Management Inc. and Haier US Appliance Solutions Inc. have 15 business days from receipt of their citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).

Whistleblower complaint. OSHA has ordered Strasburg Rail Road Co. to reinstate an employee and pay them back wages and damages after they were fired for refusing to issue locomotive and conductor licenses to an untrained and unqualified management official.

The terminated employee filed a whistleblower complaint against the tourist railroad operator in Ronks, Pennsylvania, alleging that they were fired after refusing to issue the licenses for safety and legal reasons, OSHA said. Investigators confirmed the management official lacked the required licensing credentials and determined the company retaliated by firing the worker, a violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA).

OSHA ordered the company to reinstate the employee and pay them $161,114 in back wages and interest, $10,000 in compensatory damages, and $50,000 in punitive damages. OSHA’s order also requires the company to expunge the employee’s records of any references to exercising rights under the FRSA.

Citation affirmed. An administrative law judge has affirmed a citation against Greg Beeche Logistics for exposing employees to potential falls by erecting and using scaffolds that failed to meet federal workplace safety standards.

In April 2021, inspectors found employees working on two-point suspension scaffolds at a work site at Post Office Square in Boston, Massachusetts. The swing stage scaffolds being used by the company had no additional independent support lines, which created potentially deadly fall hazards, according to OSHA.

After the agency issued the company a serious citation, the company contested it with the OSHRC. The ALJ affirmed the citation in December 2024 and assessed a $6,000 penalty. The company has appealed the decision.

Companies: NER Construction Management Inc.; Haier US Appliance Solutions Inc.; Haier Smart Home Company; GE Appliances; Strasburg Rail Road Co.; Greg Beeche Logistics

News: AgencyNews Safety RemediesDamages Whistleblowers