How other countries handle workplace safety disasters: Executives arrested
October 14, 2010 by Fred HosierPosted in: cost of safety, criminal charges, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, OSHA news, What do you think?
PDF As debate continues on whether Congress should pass a bill that would increase OSHA fines to discourage companies from disregarding safety, let’s take a look at how two other countries have recently handled corporate executives responsible for workplace disasters.
You’ve probably heard about the flood of nearly 200 million gallons of red sludge that poured from a plant in Hungary that manufactures aluminum. The flood killed eight people, injured hundreds, forced hundreds more from their homes and destroyed tens of millions of dollars in private property.
Among the measures taken by the Hungarian government: It has arrested the managing director of the company, MAL. Zoltan Bakonyi has been charged with criminal negligence leading to a public catastrophe. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
In another case, the project manager of a mining site in Australia will pay a heavy financial price for the death of an employee.
Paul Dale pleaded guilty to breaching workplace health and safety regulations.
Employee Alan Green was crushed to death when he was pinned between a water truck and a metal gate.
Dale had known that the hand brakes on the truck had failed but didn’t take the vehicle out of service.
An industrial magistrate said Dale was the site’s senior executive and had been aware of problems with the truck because it had rolled and hit a drill sump the day before.
Dale was fined $15,000 and was ordered to pay $50,000 in investigation and legal costs.
Dale has lost his company and now relies on consulting work for his livelihood.
Should the U.S. pass laws that would make it more likely that senior executives would be fined or go to jail for workplace safety breaches that cause deaths? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below.
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Tags: executives fined, Hungary, prison, red sludge, worker crushed to death
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October 14th, 2010 at 7:14 am
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October 19th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Well I know in China they occasionally execute people for messing up big time. I hope we don’t ever get to that here in the USA! Seriously, we have become such a litigious society that common sense no longer prevails. As a result we have laws that are based on anything but common sense that are predicated on an assumed tendency to do wrong rather than right, instead of on an assumption that an accident is just that - an unforeseen result that in hindsight, to some degree may or may not have been prevented. Hindsight is the operative word. Worker safety is actually much better now than ever before. But as in many things, if it isn’t perfect it isn’t deemed adequate by government regulators and ambulance-chasing lawyers. There are many tragic accidents, no doubt; but that’s why we have workers comp and that’s why employers try to maintain safe work places. Most do, too - let’s not forget it’s the exceptions that garner the most publicity. So perhaps instead of making compliance more and more onerous in a never-ending treadmill-like quest for risk-free living, maybe we should consider some other options, like firing someone. Any ideas?
October 26th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Working for a sovereign nation (Indian Tribe) can be compared to working in other countries in some respects. While OSHA is much less likely to step in they have still done so in extreme negligence cases.
I am the safety coordinator here and have written our safety policy. Much like Leslie suggests though, if we have employees that do not follow our safety policies they would be disciplined up to and including termination. You’ll be happy to know that our safety policies and procedures emulate the standards set by OSHA.
We have our own courts and legal system as well if we feel the need to prosecute. Hopefully it will never go that far.
November 1st, 2010 at 10:29 am
accidents don’t just happen. There is always a root cause. If it is determined that the executives have failed to do their jobs in the mishap then jail should be an option for the prosecutors to pursue. Some violations are criminal.