Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

OSHA – Willful Violations

By: Derek Hawkins//February 2, 2016//

OSHA – Willful Violations

By: Derek Hawkins//February 2, 2016//

Listen to this article

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Stark Excavating, Inc. v. Thomas Perez

Case No.: 14-3809

Officials: MANION, ROVNER, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Practice Area: OSHA – Willful Violations

Petition to review denied where company said to not have effective enforcement of safety policy.

“The utilization of written tickets as opposed to verbal warnings would facilitate effective enforcement of the safety rules by allowing the tracking of violations by particular employees especially when working for different foremen. That policy, however, was routinely disregarded. Between August 2006—when the policy was first implemented—and the 2008 inspection at issue here, only 33 tickets had been issued. Of those, six were issued by Stark’s area manager in Champaign in September 2006 and the rest were issued by Stark’s safety director Clayton. No other supervisorissued any written tickets between September 2006 and the violation in this case, and Schupp and Ron Martin, a Stark superintendent, testified that they never issued any safety tickets and preferred to verbally correct employees. As to Clayton, testimony also indicated that the supervisors communicated by radio with each other to provide advance warning when Clayton was in the area conducting safety audits. In light of that evidence, the ALJ concluded that Stark failed to demonstrate that it effectively enforced its own rules and policies for safety violations. The Commission affirmed the ALJ’s determination that Stark failed to demonstrate effective enforcement, and we agree. Accordingly, Stark failed to demonstrate that it had a safety policy that was effectively enforced during that time, and its argument fails for that reason as well.”

Petition For Review Denied

Full Text


Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests