NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has launched a multi-year program to reduce worker fatalities and injuries in the tree and landscape services industries in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

BRADENTON, FL – A 36-year-old mower operator drowned after the mower rolled over in a pond, pinning the worker underwater. Federal workplace safety inspectors determined the employer could have avoided the incident by following required safety measures outlined in the equipment operator’s manual.

TIGERTON, WI – A U.S. Department of Labor follow-up inspection of Tigerton Lumber Co. found that the Wisconsin sawmill continued to expose many of its employees to amputation and other dangers. The inspection was part of a federal program for severe violators. The company was deemed a severe violator in 2019 after an investigation into how an employee suffered fatal injuries in 2018. 

BOSTON – The Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards has revoked William Trahant’s construction supervisor’s license for at least two years as the result of a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor citing seven separate citations issued to his company since 2014 for violating federal fall safety regulations, as well as his continued failure to pay more than $300,000 in related penalties.

Employers:    All Phase Roofing Inc.

                        1313 S. Killian Drive, Lake Park, FL 33403

                        Lennar Homes LLC

APPLETON, WI – Federal workplace safety inspectors found an Appleton contractor once again ignoring the dangers of allowing employees to do residential roof work without required fall protection equipment and training designed to protect workers from the industry’s deadliest hazard: falls from elevation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, of 1,015 construction workers who suffered fatal on-the-job injuries in 2021, 379 of them died in falls. 

OMAHA, NE ‒ A federal investigation into how an employee suffered a serious hand injury at an Omaha beef processing plant in June 2023 identified more than a dozen willful and serious violations related to the company’s failures to protect its workers from numerous safety and health hazards.

TAMUNING, GUAM ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement agreement with Pepsi Guam Bottling after an inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found the company exposed employees to amputation and other serious injuries.

SAVOY, IL – Twice within a month, an Illinois roofing contractor — cited previously more than 20 times for violating federal workplace safety regulations — was again found exposing employees to falls as they did residential framing work on houses under construction in Savoy. Falls remain the construction industry’s leading cause of death.  

WHEELING, WV – The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement agreement to resolve litigation following a March 2022 investigation at a work site in Wheeling that resulted in a dozen citations issued against an Ohio-based contractor with an extensive history of exposing workers to deadly falls.

OAKLAND, NJ – A U.S. Department of Labor inspection in June 2023 at an Oakland manufacturing company — that followed reports of two workers being injured — found employees exposed to dozens of serious safety and health hazards.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration will publish a proposal in January 2024 to update an existing standard and expand safety and health protections for emergency responders, including firefighters, emergency medical service providers and technical search and rescue workers.

BELLEFONTAINE, OH ‒ An Ohio industrial rubber hose manufacturer with a long history of federal workplace safety issues could have prevented a 25-year-old worker from suffering severe crushing injuries by following required safety measures, the U.S. Department of Labor has determined.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker issued a statement regarding today’s release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of its 2022 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries:

FLORENCE, WI – Despite federal regulations barring young workers from operating dangerous machinery, the management of a Wisconsin sawmill allowed several minors workers to perform maintenance on equipment without training or following required safety procedures.

On June 29, 2023, a 16-year-old worker became trapped in a stick stacker machine as he tried to unjam it. The young worker remained trapped until he was found and freed, and then transported to the hospital where he passed away two days later. 

HOUSTON – A federal investigation into the fatal roof collapse at Friendswood High School in June 2023 in which four workers suffered injuries — including one who later died — found two Houston-area contractors exposed employees to safety hazards by ignoring federal requirements to complete an engineering survey before demolition began.  

CAMBRIA, WI – The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement agreement with Didion Milling Inc. that requires the Cambria corn milling company to pay more than $1.8 million in penalties after a May 31, 2017, explosion that killed five workers and injured more than a dozen others. The company has also agreed to make extensive safety and health improvements at the facility. 

PALATINE, IL – Twice within a month in summer 2023, federal workplace safety inspectors found a Palatine contractor did not provide roofing employees with required fall protection, exposing them to the risk of falls from elevation, the construction industry’s leading cause of workplace deaths.

WESTFIELD, IL ‒ Two weeks before the U.S. Department of Labor issued citations to a Westfield grain company for a worker being entrapped in a grain bin for five hours in February 2023, the company notified the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration that another employee suffered severe leg injuries on July 12, 2023. The employee required a partial leg amputation. 

SAN FRANCISCO ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched a Regional Emphasis Program to promote workplace safety and protect people employed in the landscaping and horticultural industries in four western states and three Pacific territories.