Ex aluminium plant manager sentenced to federal prison....

We have followed this incident for the past seven years. Here is the latest:

An executive at an aluminium company in the USA when an employee was killed by falling metal racks was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in trying to cover up the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.

Former plant general manager was also fined $20,000 when he was sentenced the third week of October in federal court in the USA. He will be on three years of supervised release when he’s released from custody.

The ex-plant manager pleaded guilty July 11 to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice after initially facing charges that also included obstruction of justice and obstruction of proceedings, court records show. He was indicted in October 2018.

A second ex-manager, (name removed) was the safety coordinator and human resources director at the aluminium company in 2012, will be sentenced next week, also to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The ex-safety coordinator, who pleaded guilty July 2019, had faced the same charges as the ex-plant manager plus a charge of making false statements to law enforcement.

The charges stemmed from an investigation into the 2012 death of a worker.

The worker was killed in October 2012, during an incident at the plant when two metal racks stacked on top of each other, weighing between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds, tipped over onto him and another employee. The two men were pushing the racks on a roller conveyor system, according to a police report.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration began its investigation after the incident in October 2012, and learned of multiple emails concerning safety issues with the roller system.

The two managers devised a plan to lie to an OSHA investigator, an indictment against the pair states. They persuaded employees, by suggesting their jobs might be in jeopardy, to draft statements recanting previous emails about safety issues, according to the indictment. Also during an interview with OSHA, (ex-safety manager) gave false information about safety issues, the indictment states.

The aluminium company, which has a parent company in Canada, pleaded guilty in April 2019 to a charge of misprision of a felony in connection with a conspiracy to obstruct justice related to the OSHA investigation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Misprision is the deliberate concealment of one’s knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony.

First and foremost we pray that next week that the sentencing of the ex-safety manager will bring some closure to the deceased worker’s family and friends. We also pray that the injured worker, (who was severely burned and injured) has recovered fully.

For the USA this is one of the few incidents where plant management were held liable for the death of a worker. We do have to acknowledge that the reason for the prison sentence and monetary fine was not because a worker died but because the defendants lied to OSHA investigators.

Let’s discuss the sentence. Five months in federal prison means the defendant will serve time, it is unknown if the defendant will be eligible for early parole for good behavior. Once released or paroled, must check in with a parole officer on regular basis, often weekly. A violation of these terms will send the parolee back to prison. The conviction will be have an effect on future employment. So even though the amount of incarceration may seem small. The overall effect of the sentencing on the defendant will have long term consequences for not only him but his family to. We pray that this case will be a deterrent for future managers to always correct safety hazards in their plants.

This incident could have been prevented. How can we make that statement? Earlier court hearings involved the release of internal emails stating that the defendants communicating about the conveyor system and stating that it was a safety issue. For reasons only they know the safety issue was not corrected and one worker was killed and another worker was severely burned.

On our travels companies will ask us to speak to plant managers about safety related topics. We will add this incident to our agenda. We pray that by posting these incidents we can bring awareness and hopefully prevent recurrence.

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