Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Gov’t safety enforcement in the USA got a lot tougher…

The threat of criminal prosecution for company and plant management is a factor in why some plants around the world care about safety. That threat of prosecution can involve everything from fines, jail time, and even death. Regardless of the potential outcomes the possibility of prosecution has a traumatic effect in some plants in our industry. In the United States the threat of fines to the company and the possibility of lawsuits have been the norm for decades. There have been arguments on whether fining the company is enough. Here is a recent story that has the potential to shock the aluminium plants in the USA.

The Department of Labor and the Department of Justice have established a new initiative to prevent and deter crimes that jeopardize the lives and health of workers. The initiative strengthens the ability of the two departments to investigate and prosecute employers who fail to provide a safe workplace for their employees. Deputy Secretary of Labor Chris Lu joined Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in signing the agreement during a ceremony at the Dept. of Justice on December 17, 2015.

The Memorandum of Understanding calls for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Attorney's Offices to work with the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mine Safety and Health Administration, and Wage and Hour Division to investigate and prosecute worker endangerment violations. The worker safety statutes generally provide for only misdemeanor penalties, and the new initiative will encourage them to use the federal criminal and penal code and environmental offenses, which often occur in conjunction with worker safety crimes, to enhance penalties and increase deterrence.










The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog commends any action by a government organization that will make our industry safer. The following of the industry’s best practices toward safety vary from plant to plant. In the USA we feel this may have a shocking effect on some plants. While other plants will notice nothing.

Looking back at the various APSB posts involving incidents in the USA. We wonder how many of them would result in prosecution of the employer if they occurred this year. We will never know. We hope that this new action by the US Department of Justice and OSHA will force aluminium companies in the USA to reexamine their safety programs.


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