California Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet and Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced yesterday it has taken legal action against a Delaware company for failing to pay approximately 300 California janitorial workers proper wages and engaging in unfair business practices. Damages being sought could exceed $5 million.
OSHA has inspected Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.10 times since 2004--including this follow-up to an inspection after an employee fatality occurred in February 2006.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa yesterday signed a consent decree ending a lawsuit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Target Corp. for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by not hiring African Americans in the retail giant’s District 110 (Milwaukee and Madison, Wisc.) based on their race, and by failing to keep documents as required by law.
MSHA Chief Richard Stickler said 20 more mines have been warned they are on his agency's radar screen, while six of the original eight have made sufficient improvement.
"The sizable fines proposed here reflect the scope and seriousness of these conditions and the need for them to be promptly and effectively addressed," said Diana Cortez, director of OSHA's area office in Tarrytown, N.Y.
A case before OSHRC argues there is no support for the key 1993 precedent allowing OSHA to cite recordkeeping violations years after they occurred.
Penalties in a 1991 case involving a GM auto plant in Oklahoma City were reduced to $692,000, but OSHA and DOL won an important victory.
"Wherever and whenever this basic, common-sense and legally required safeguard is ignored, OSHA will continue to be present," said Patric Griffin, OSHA's area director in Providence, R.I.
"Employees should never be allowed into an excavation until it is properly and effectively protected against collapse," said Brenda Gordon, OSHA's area director in Braintree, Mass.
Investigators with the Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition, a multi-agency task force designed to root out California's underground economy, recently targeted Orange County businesses in the construction industry it said were operating illegally.
The Miami-based company faces a proposed $258,935 in penalties.
Another worker died in 2021 due to injuries at the Mississippi facility.