MAPLE HEIGHTS, OH ‒ An Ohio outpatient mental health treatment facility has taken numerous steps to improve workplace safety, including employing a weapons screening process, enhancing security and implementing staff training, after a patient attacked a nurse practitioner violently in April 2024. 

Date of action:           

Nov. 20, 2024

Type of action:           

Petition to enforce subpoena 

Employer:                  

U.S. Postal Service, New Salem, Pennsylvania

PATERSON, NJ – A commercial baker in Paterson faces $385,221 in federal penalties after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the employer failed to correct workplace safety hazards identified in 2023.

NEW YORK ­­– Federal inspectors have found a Syracuse iron foundry, operating for more than 150 years, continued its pattern of violating federal regulations. The foundry has been cited for more than two dozen willful, repeat, serious and other violations.

Inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Frazer & Jones LLC in October 2024 for exposing employees to the risks of fire and explosion, thermal and chemical burns, falls, and other hazards.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas Parker issued the following statement on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2023 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses:

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL – Federal inspectors have cited 595 Construction LLC - a Crystal Lake contractor with a history of exposing employees to fall hazards - for eight safety violations after finding employees framing a residential structure without required protections three times at three residential worksites in the same neighborhood in May 2024. 

WASHINGTON – Fewer workers are dying from hazards where the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has focused its enforcement resources. Preliminary agency data show a decrease in fatalities the agency is mandated to investigate, including significant reductions in fatal injuries from trench collapses and falls, two of the leading causes of death among construction industry workers.

YORK, PA - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against a York manufacturing company alleging the company wrongly terminated an employee who raised safety concerns when directed to use a ladder to move stock items when they believed a forklift would be safer.

HAMILTON, MO ‒ A Missouri grain cooperative could have prevented an employee’s fatal engulfment in a storage bin in May 2024 had it followed federal workplace safety requirements, the U.S. Department of Labor determined.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation found two contractors could have prevented a crane collapse at a Fort Lauderdale residential construction site in April 2024, which caused a 27-year-old rigger to suffer fatal injuries after falling approximately 30 stories.

SYRACUSE, NY – An administrative law judge has ordered a Rochester commercial roofing company to pay $16,782 in penalties for two serious fall protection and ladder safety violations, after an investigation and litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.

TEMPLE, TX – Federal workplace safety investigators have determined that a Temple manufacturer and designer of school furnishings could have prevented an employee’s serious and permanent hand and arm injuries by installing required machine guards. 

BRAINTREE, MA – A federal workplace safety investigation has found the operator of three Massachusetts waterproofing contracting companies could have prevented an employee from suffering fatal injuries in February 2024 when part of a foundation broke and fell on the worker in a 5-to-6-foot-deep trench beneath the foundation of a Hanson residence.

HUNTSVILLE, AL – A U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety investigation has found that a Huntsville countertop installation company could have prevented a 33-year-old employee from being struck by a stone slab weighing thousands of pounds by following federal safety standards at a Huntsville job site.

MACON, GA – Federal safety inspectors found a Macon tire manufacturing facility with a history of safety and health violations could have prevented the fatal injuries sustained by a 57-year-old maintenance worker in April 2024. 

ATLANTA – A federal administrative law judge has ruled that CSX Transportation Inc., a subsidiary of one of the nation’s largest transportation companies, must pay a total of $453,510 to two railroad workers who were wrongfully terminated for exercising their federally protected rights to report workplace safety concerns. The company must also reinstate the workers. 

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

Emergency and recovery response workers

Residents in areas affected by hurricanes Milton and Helene

JANESVILLE, WI ‒ A follow-up inspection by federal workplace safety investigators in April 2024 found a Janesville recycling company continuing to expose employees to unsafe levels of lead and cadmium while they dismantled cathode ray tubes from older TVs, despite being cited for the same violations in April 2023.

Employers:    Wholestone Farms Cooperative Inc.

                             900 South Platte Ave.

                             Fremont, NE 

HEMINGFORD, NE ‒ Federal investigators found life-threatening hazards at a Nebraska grain cooperative, where workers faced risks of fire and explosions due to the company allowing a buildup of combustible dust and failing to maintain effective dust collection systems, leading to more than $500,000 in proposed penalties.