CALUMET CITY, IL – Three times in four months, federal safety inspectors observed workers employed by a Calumet City roofing contractor exposed to deadly fall hazards at job sites in Lake Zurich and Wheeling. In each instance, the company’s foremen on site failed to protect workers from known hazards as they did residential framing work on new homes under construction.

MAPLETON, IL ‒ On June 2, 2022, a 39-year-old employee of a Mapleton foundry fell and was immediately incinerated in an 11-foot-deep pot of molten iron heated to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A federal investigation determined that, if required safety guards or fall protection had been installed, the 39-year-old employee’s ninth day on the job might not have been their last.

BRAINTREE, MA – A Quincy-based roofing contractor exposed workers on the roofs of a garage and house in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood to potentially fatal falls from heights between seven and 21 feet, U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors found.

CHICAGO ‒ With injury rates among the more than 90,000 food production workers in Illinois and Ohio significantly higher than other manufacturing workers, the U.S. Department of Labor has stepped up its outreach and enforcement efforts to reduce workplace hazards and better protect workers in these states.

Participant:   Chatham Village Foods, Wareham, Massachusetts

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Swank Enterprises Inc.

What:             Workplace safety alliance

ATLANTA – Less than one month after the U.S. Department of Labor cited Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC with more than $1.6 million in penalties for putting its workers’ safety at risk, federal inspectors have issued citations for similar violations at store locations in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and added $2,777,640 in proposed penalties now owed by one of the nation’s largest discount retailers.

NEW YORK – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has denied a Staten Island health provider’s attempt to prevent the U.S. Department of Labor from pursuing damages for a COVID-19 whistleblower whose private state whistleblower claim was dismissed.

PHILADELPHIA – A Philadelphia framing contractor faces $269,594 in proposed penalties after the company was again found exposing employees to deadly fall hazards at a residential worksite in the city’s Roxborough section on April 21, 2022.  

FOSTORIA, OH – An Ohio vinyl tile manufacturer faces $1,232,705 in proposed penalties after U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors responded when a worker suffered severe injuries as a result of being caught in a machine on April 28, 2022.

Participants:      U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration

                                 Lamar Advertising Co.

PATERSON, NJ – The U.S. Department of Labor has issued citations to three New Jersey contractors who willfully exposed employees to potentially lethal dangers by allowing them to work near energized power lines at a Paterson worksite.

ATLANTA – Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC – operator of more than 18,000 Dollar General discount stores in 47 states – has again ignored federal workplace safety standards, this time identified during inspections at four locations in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The company faces $1,682,302 in proposed penalties after these inspections, a portion of the more than $9.6 million in total initial penalties the company has received since 2017.

ATLANTA – In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has initiated efforts to provide on-site technical assistance and outreach in the areas of Florida hardest hit by the storm to protect workers involved in the recovery and response and to prevent any further injury or loss of life.

RIVER GROVE, IL – While federal workplace safety inspectors are used to some employers’ disregard for workplace safety, the response of a Chicago-area carpentry company’s site supervisor to a U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector’s notification at the site about workers without fall protection exposed to the construction industry’s most lethal hazard – falls from elevation – was especially blatant.

CHICAGO ­– Employing interactive online reporting tools, virtual job planning sites and new employee orientations with a commitment to safety are some of the hallmarks of the Power Construction Co.’s innovative safety and health program.

MARGATE, FL – Working at the bottom of a Margate canal on April 4, 2022, a young diver was removing sand with an industrial vacuum to restore an embankment project when sediment above collapsed onto him, leaving the 22-year-old worker trapped until he drowned.

Who:   U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration South Dakota Safety Council

What: Workplace safety alliance

WHO:  Missouri Slope, Bismarck, North Dakota   

WHAT:  Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program Star Level Designation

SAVANNAH, GA – A federal workplace safety investigation into how an employee suffered a fatal electrocution while digging a shallow drainage trench under a home has found that a Savannah crawl space remediation company might have prevented the incident by following required safety standards.