Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog

July 28, 2014

Hyde Park Contractor Subjects Employees to Electrocution Hazards: Faces $70,000 in Fines

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration says that it has cited P. Gioioso & Sons Inc., a Hyde Park contracting company, for knowingly exposing workers to electrocution hazards from power lines at Cambridge, Massachusetts work site.

According to a press release published by OSHA, the company exposed its employees to possible electrocution from working close to energized power lines at a work site where required safeguards were not used. On May 9, an inspection by an OSHA official found that employees used a trench rod and a fiberglass pole with a metal end to lift overhead power lines, so that workers could move excavating equipment under the lines and onto the work site.

According to OSHA’s area director, Jeffrey Erskine (who handles cases in Middlesex and Essex counties), “This employer knew the overhead power lines were dangerous, but did not take steps to protect workers or shield them from contact and electrocution. Electricity is swift and deadly. While it is fortunate no one was injured or killed in this case, the hazard of death or disabling burns was real and present.”

Because of this incident, the contracting company faces $70,290 in proposed fines. In 2011, P. Gioioso & Sons Inc., was cited for the same hazard at a Framingham work site. Based on the employer’s knowledge of the hazard, OSHA has cited Gioioso for a willful violation with $69,300 in proposed fines. According to OSHA standards, a willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health. Another violation, with a $990 fine, was cited for improper labeling of a trench box.
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July 25, 2014

Massachusetts Worker’s Death Leads to Fines for New Bedford Fish Processing Plant

by Altman & Altman

Six months after the death of a worker in a New Bedford processing plant, his employer has been ordered to pay a hefty fine. Sea Watch International Ltd. was cited for seven serious safety violations following the deadly Massachusetts work accident. The company must now pay a more than $35,000 fine.

The worker, Victor Gerena, was cleaning a shellfish-shucking machine when he got “entangled” in a rotary turbine engine at around 1:30am on the night shift in January. The fire department spent close to an hour freeing him.

Gerena was pronounced dead at the accident scene. He worked with Sea Watch for almost two decades. Following his death, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health called on all industries using big machines to make sure that they have the proper protections in place to protect workers from injuries and deaths on the job. Brenda Gordon of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said that if the company had executed necessary safety practices, Gerena’s death could have been prevented.

July 10, 2014

Dollar Tree Stores Fined Nearly $178,000 for Safety Hazards at MA Store

by Altman & Altman

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration has fined Dollar Tree Stores Inc., $177,800 after OSHA inspectors from the Braintree area inspection office found dangerous hazards at a store in Roslindale, MA. According to OSHA reports, the Boston neighborhood store repeatedly exposed workers to dangerous conditions including blocked exits and hazards in the store’s stockroom.

“This case reflects this company’s deliberate and ongoing refusal to effectively address hazards that have been cited multiple times at their stores across the country,” Brenda Gordon, OSHA’s area director for Boston and southeastern Massachusetts, said in a press release. “On his initial visit to the store, the OSHA inspector informed management of the hazards and the need to correct them. Yet, on subsequent visits, the inspector found these hazardous conditions again and again, showing an unacceptable disregard for employee health and safety.”

According to OSHA documents, the inspection was performed in December 2013. The official reportedly found that merchandise in the store’s stockroom was consistently stacked in an unstable and unsecured manner that exposed workers to crushing injuries should the stacks collapse. Additionally, emergency exit routes were blocked by store inventory, shopping carriages, a conveyor and garbage. The report also stated that the store failed to maintain a means of access to an electrical control panel so that employees could turn off the store’s electrical power in the event of an emergency.

Consequently OSHA cited Dollar Tree Stores for three willful violations, totaling $174,500 in fines. A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health, according to OSHA standards. The company was also cited for one serious violation, with a $3,300 fine, for allowing trash and garbage to accumulate throughout the stockroom, creating tripping and exit hazards for the workers. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known, according to OSHA.

In OSHA’s press release, it was stated that Dollar Tree Stores has been inspected 153 times nationally over 19 years and was cited for 453 violations of OSHA standards. Within the last five years, Dollar Tree Stores was cited 51 times for the same violations being cited willfully at the Roslindale store.

OSHA’s acting regional administrator for New England Robert Hooper stated “Placing employees repeatedly at risk of serious injuries or death is serial behavior for this company, and it must change. A large employer such as Dollar Tree Stores has a responsibility to its employees to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers at all of its more than 5,000 locations.”
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July 7, 2014

Fatal Hazmat Incident Reported at MA Elementary School

by Altman & Altman

Officials in Plymouth are scrambling to figure out what caused a scary hazardous materials incident that claimed the life of a senior custodian at Manomet Elementary School this morning. Police responded to a report of a body inside the building, but it was not immediately known if it was related the ongoing hazmat incident or if it was an unrelated occurrence. Upon investigating the death of the school employee, two police officers and another unidentified person became ill and needed to be transported to the hospital. Boston.com reports that a total of ten people, including nine school employees were taken the hospital with minor symptoms. Most had been treated and released.

It is unclear what caused the illness, and officials are investigating whether the incident is related work being done on the building, or if it was caused by another unknown source. The state fire marshal is conducting an investigation and said more information would be available later in the afternoon, but did say that chemical levels in the building appeared to be “very low.”
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June 30, 2014

Boston Bridge & Steel Inc. Cited by OSHA After Worker’s Death

by Altman & Altman

Steel fabrication plant Boston Bridge & Steel Inc., was cited by the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety Health Organization following a worker’s death late last year.

The 46-year-old man who worked at the steel fabrication plant died when a 6-ton steel bridge arch beam that he was spray painting fell and crushed him. An investigation by OSHA found that Boston Bridge & Steel Inc. exposed its workers to hazardous situations including failing to ensure that the fallen beam and three other similar beams were adequately braced or supported to prevent them from falling while being painted.

“This death should not have happened-and would not have happened-if these beams had been properly secured,” said Brenda Gordon, OSHA’s area director for Boston and southeastern Massachusetts. “An incident such as this, and the incalculable loss of life that results, can be prevented only if employers provide and maintain effective safeguards for their workers.”

The employees, who were cleaning and spray-painting the beams, were also not equipped with adequate respiratory protection against vapors generated during the spray painting, according to a press release by OSHA. In addition, workers who wore half-face respirators had not been evaluated to determine their medical fitness to use respirators and had not been supplied with the correct respirator filters. Investigators also determined that employees had not been informed or trained about the hazards associated with chemicals used during spray painting.

Additional hazards found by OSHA officials included flying debris from an unguarded grinder and the use of a cleaning hose with excess air pressure; flash burns due to missing screens where welding was performed; electric shock and fire hazards from misused electrical cords and missing electrical knockouts; falls from a damaged access ladder; and slips and trips from accumulated ice and snow on an emergency exit route, according to OSHA.
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June 25, 2014

New Study Shows Long-Lasting Effects of Workplace Chemicals

by Altman & Altman

It has been a well-known fact for years that some chemicals found in certain work environments can be dangerous to an employee’s health. We know that Asbestos, for example, provided excellent fire protection for homes built in the mid-20th century, but was found to be definitively linked to Mesothelioma, an aggressive form of lung cancer. We know that the chemicals found in many industrial strength solvents cannot possible be healthy to breathe in, but a recent study shows these effects may be much more significant than originally thought.

The scientific definition for a solvent is a substance, such as water, that is used to dissolve another compound-say, salt. When salt is dissolved in water, the salt is the solute in this situation, the water is the solvent, and the salt water is the end result-the solution. Chemical solvents use potent materials to break down stronger compounds. In the study authored by Erika Sabbath, a research fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, researchers focused on three different types of chemical solvents:
• Benzene, which is found in detergents and many types of plastics • Chlorinated solvents, which are common ingredients in industrial products such as paint strippers and dry cleaning solutions
• Petroleum solvents, commonly found in varnish.
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June 23, 2014

Massachusetts House Approves Domestic Workers Bill That Establishes Protections

by Altman & Altman

The Massachusetts House has just approved legislation that establishes a “bill of rights” for domestic workers. Under the bill, domestic workers are defined as individuals who provide services in the home, such as laundering, housekeeping, caregiving, home companion services, cooking, and childcare. (Babysitting is not included). The bill was approved by the state’s senate last month. Now, Governor Deval Patrick must sign the bill into law.

There are about 67,000 domestic workers in Massachusetts. Many of them are women, which can make them easy targets of sexual harassment and other abuses. Many domestic employees have complained that they lack the legal protections provided to other workers in the state.

Under the new legislation, domestic workers employed in a household for over 16 hours a week would have to receive written contracts. They would be entitled to a description of their duties, their pay rate (including overtime and compensation for specialized skills and other responsibilities), information about yearly raises, health insurance, and reimbursement for additional expenses.

June 12, 2014

New Bedford Shellfish Processing Plant Fined after Worker’s Death

by Altman & Altman

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined New Bedford shellfish processing plant Sea Watch International as well as the temporary employment agency which supplied the plant’s workers, a total of $44,000 in safety violations following the death of an employee earlier this year.

The worker, Victor Gerena, 35, was an 18-year veteran of Sea Watch who had become entangled in a rotary turbine engine while cleaning jammed clams from a shucking machine, the Boston Globe reported. According to OSHA officials, the machine’s power had not been turned off-ultimately causing Gerena to become stuck in the machine. Such preventative measures as the “lock out tag out” should have been taken by Gerena and officials from OSHA alleged that the company had failed to properly train the man of this safety procedure.

In total, the Maryland-based company was issued 11 violations by OSHA, including eight serious violations for workplace safety standards, equaling $35,410 in fines. $9,000 in fines were also issued to Rhode Island temp agency Workforce Unlimited, covering five violations-three of which were deemed serious by OSHA.

This is not the only time Sea Watch International, a major supplier of canned clams for 35 years, has been under scrutiny by OSHA. In 2011, the plant was inspected by officials who had discovered several serious safety violations, including inadequate emergency training for employees dealing with hazardous waste and insufficient respiratory protection for some workers. According to the Boston Globe, OSHA reported no “lock out tag out” violations were made at the time. Because of those violations in 2011, the company paid $4,675 in fines and ultimately mitigated the issues. A follow-up inspection in April 2012 found the company was in full compliance with OSHA standards.

Sadly, this is only another example of how inadequate training and non-compliance with safety standards in the workplace can lead to workers being injured or killed on the job. Recently, we reported that the Tribe hummus plant in Taunton, MA, was cited following the 2011 death of Daniel Collazo who like Gerena, was caught in a machinery for not using the “lock out tag out” safety procedure. Tribe was fined $500,000 by OSHA. According to the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, Gerena’s death marks the twenty-second worker death caused by machinery in Massachusetts since 2000. The majority of these deaths were the direct result of inadequate machine guards and lack of other federally mandated safety measures, according to the coalition and the Boston Globe.
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June 2, 2014

Report Finds MA Companies Slacking on Safety

by Altman & Altman

It does not take long to find a group of trade workers dangling from the raw beams of a skyscraper under construction downtown or a crew working in the subterranean depths of a trench in Cambridge. Most citizens of the Commonwealth walk by these sites and remark to themselves how dangerous that looks, and then continue on their way, safely out of the danger facing construction workers every day.

It should come as no surprise that construction trades consistently rank among the most dangerous occupations in the United States, and this year is no exception. Citing the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Forbes ranked construction laborers as the tenth most dangerous profession last year. According to the article, occupational hazards include “heavy machinery, dangerous tools and equipment.” Because of the well-documented risks, building and construction companies have the added responsibility of keeping their workers safe under more hazardous situations than the traditional office environment. A recent investigation by CBS Boston exposed the hard truth that numerous companies are willfully neglecting the safety of their laborers and putting profits ahead of the lives of their workers.
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May 31, 2014

Salisbury, MA Manufacturer Fined $93,200 for Repeat Safety Violations

by Altman & Altman

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Andover Healthcare Inc., a maker of coated fabrics and adhesives for the healthcare industry, for willfully exposing workers to safety hazards at its Salisbury, MA manufacturing plant.

According to OSHA documents, the company put workers’ lives at risk by exposing them to unsafe machinery. Workers were ultimately at risk for being caught in plant machinery or being crushed in said machinery. The company also faces violations for not properly training employees the lockout/tagout procedure when using dangerous machinery. The company is currently facing more than $93,000 worth of fines for two repeat violations and seven serious violations. In 2010 an OSHA investigation found that the company had intentionally put workers’ at risk-the same violations were made this month and carried fines of more than $65,000.

“It’s vital that employers develop and implement adequate lockout/tagout procedures to protect workers from moving machine parts during servicing and maintenance,” said Jeffery Erskine, OSHA’s area director for Middlesex and Essex counties. “Failure to do so places employees at risk of being caught in or crushed by machinery if it turns on during service or maintenance.”   

OSHA found workers had been exposed to struck-by and crushing hazards from damaged or insecurely anchored steel storage racks and an unmarked crane lift. Additional hazards included unguarded machinery, a defective power cord and obstructed exit access. These conditions resulted in citations for seven serious violations, with $26,200 in fines. Finally, the company was cited for two other-than-serious violations, with $2,000 in fines, for failure to record the injuries properly, which resulted in medical treatment or lost workdays.
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