Criminal Prosecution of Employers for Workplace Deaths and Injuries
| Publication year | 1987 |
| Pages | 1974 |
1987, November, Pg. 1974. Criminal Prosecution of Employers for Workplace Deaths and Injuries
In the last year, local prosecutors throughout the United States took an increasingly active role in investigating and bringing criminal charges in connection with workplace deaths and injuries.(fn1) This trend can be illustrated by a number of cases.
In one of the most celebrated cases to date, three executives of Film Recovery Systems, Inc., an Illinois silver reclamation facility, were sentenced to twenty-five years following the death of a fifty-nine-year-old worker exposed to cyanide.(fn2) In another Illinois action, five corporate officials of Chicago Magnet Wire Corp. were charged with multiple accounts of aggravated battery and reckless conduct for, among other things, exposing employees to toxic substances.(fn3)
In Texas, an Austin contractor and its president were each sentenced the maximum $10,000 fine for negligent homicide stemming from the September 1985 death of two of the employees involved in a trench cave-in.(fn4) In a separate action, a Houston contractor pleaded no contest and was fined $20,000 for the death of a worker killed in a trench accident.(fn5) Concerned that the maximum penalties in these cases were insufficient, the Texas legislature recently amended the Texas Penal Code to provide a maximum $50,000 fine for corporate negligence which causes serious bodily injury or death. Additional legislation allowing the state to disqualify companies with poor safety records from bidding on state projects was also passed.(fn6)
In California, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office has instituted a special "roll-out" unit, comprised of attorneys, an industrial hygienist and criminal investigators, which responds to every occupational death. Criminal charges have been filed in numerous cases. California is also considering a bill similar to the Texas legislation which would make it a misdemeanor for an employer to "maintain or operate a condition, practice, or process which creates a substantial probability that death or physical harm could result."(fn7)
In Washington, a construction company that pleaded guilty to willfully violating state safety standards governing trench shoring was fined $10,000 when a worker died in a 1983 trench collapse.(fn8) Adverse publicity associated with the charges has since forced the company out of business.
In Wisconsin, homicide charges were recently brought against a local contractor in the death of an eighteen-year-old bulldozer operator.(fn9) The worker apparently received no training or supervision and died when the bulldozer he was operating fell over a cliff.
In Colorado, there have been no reported criminal indictments of an employer for a workplace death or injury under state or local criminal laws. However, recent construction fatalities have prompted inquiries from local district attorneys' offices and, as elsewhere, local publicity concerning the trend in criminal prosecution has been on the rise.(fn10) Given this trend, it is only a matter of time before a Colorado employer is criminally charged in connection with an employee death or serious injury.
Employers can face criminal sanctions under both state and federal law. Under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act ("OSHA"), an employer that willfully violates any of OSHA's health and safety standards resulting in the death of an employee can be punished by a fine up to $10,000 and/or imprisoned up to six months.(fn11) A second conviction can draw penalties up to $20,000 and/or one year in prison. A "willful" violation of OSHA, for both criminal and civil purposes, is defined as an intentional disregard of or plain indifference to the requirements of the Act's standards.(fn12)
Recently, the U.S. Justice Department issued an opinion(fn13) that violations of OSHA resulting in loss of human life are also punishable by fines up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for organizations under the 1984 Comprehensive Crime Control Act and Criminal Fine Collection Act.
Whether company executives and supervisors of corporate employers can be individually liable under OSHA's criminal sanctions remains an open question. Under OSHA, an "employer"...
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