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. 

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.  

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.

MINOT, ND – Despite signing a 2021 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor that included a promise to protect its employees from potentially deadly trenching and excavation hazards, a Minnesota construction contractor was again found endangering employees in June 2023 as they replaced a residential water main and 20 separate curb stop valves for house connections in Minot. 

ATLANTA – A federal investigation has determined a Cartersville chemical manufacturer could have prevented a 52-year-old leach tank operator from suffering fatal chemical and thermal burns over most of his body in June 2023 by following required safety regulations.

BRAINTREE, MA – A federal investigation has found that an East Freetown concrete contractor could have prevented an employee maintaining a soil screener from suffering fatal injuries on Sept. 6, 2023, by following required safety regulations.

BOSTON – A federal administrative law judge has determined that New Hampshire general contractor Barry Billcliff, doing business as Merrimack Valley Roofing and under other alleged business names, willfully exposed his employees to fall safety hazards and held him personally liable for more than $160,000 in penalties and attorneys’ fees. 

CHICAGO – To make sure the holiday season is truly joyful, the U.S. Department of Labor reminds employers and workers not to overlook workplace safety and health. 

For a sad reminder of how an on-the-job tragedy can leave families, friends and co-workers grief-stricken, look no further than Akron, Ohio, where a 25-year-old worker — hanging holiday lights on a backyard tree — suffered severe electrical shock injuries and later died after the fiberglass extension pole he used on Nov. 7, 2023, made contact with a high-voltage power line.

SOUTH BAY, FL – A federal workplace safety investigation found a South Bay correctional and rehabilitation facility failed to follow recognized safety practices, leaving employees vulnerable to violent attacks and injuries, including one worker who a patient reportedly struck in the face with a rock.

WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, OH – A federal investigation into how a 35-year-old worker suffered severe leg burns, degloving of their foot and other injuries after falling into corrosive chemicals in May 2023 has found that an Ohio meat processing plant’s safety failures exposed employees to hazardous conditions.

PHILADELPHIA ‒ The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that it has renewed a Regional Emphasis Program to focus inspections in three mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia on industries with high levels of workplace noise, which can contribute to worker hearing loss.

Participants:  

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

MEJA Construction Inc.

Georgia Institute of Technology On-Site Safety and Health Consultation Program

What:  Strategic safety partnership

SUAMICO, WI – After an Overhead Solutions LLC manager attended an on-site training discussion on fall hazards on May 25, 2023, federal workplace safety inspectors observed the company’s employees working about 30 feet above ground on a Menasha apartment complex roof without adequate fall protection. 

HIGH SPRINGS, FL – A global manufacturer of industrial gas could have prevented a May 2023 explosion in High Springs that severely injured several employees by following required operating procedures in the manufacturing process, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.

ANDOVER, MA – A Newburyport pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturer and its parent company could have prevented an employee’s fatal injuries from an explosion on May 4, 2023, but lacked the required safeguards in a chemical manufacturing process, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found. 

EL PASO, TX – A U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety inspection at a prominent El Paso manufacturing company found the employer willfully exposed workers to the risks of amputation and permanent hearing loss and violated dozens of federal safety and health regulations.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WI – One of the world’s best known manufacturing companies could have prevented an employee at a southwestern Wisconsin manufacturing plant from suffering fatal injuries after becoming caught in a machine’s rotating rollers in May 2023 by following federal workplace safety regulations. 

Employers:    KBT Contracting Corp. 

                        5105 Blanding Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32210

                        Aquino Construction Inc. 

                        11465 Branan Field Road, Jacksonville, FL 32222

                        Darmick LLC

                        1804 Bartram Circle East, Jacksonville, FL 32207