Is this why some state safety programs are at odds with federal OSHA?
October 12, 2010 by Fred HosierPosted in: Electrical safety, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Who Got Fined and Why?
A California school district employee was electrocuted while performing maintenance. Now the district and Cal/OSHA have settled the fines in connection with the 2009 death: The district will pay just 17.5% of what was originally proposed.
Sprinkler system specialist James Jeffredo was performing maintenance on the Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) irrigation system when he was electrocuted. The original citation from Cal/OSHA stated Jeffredo repeatedly asked to hire an outside contractor to work on the system’s pump motors.
Cal/OSHA’s initial citations included six counts: three general and three serious. The agency said DSUSD hadn’t properly trained Jeffredo to do the electrical work and hadn’t provided and required the use of safety equipment.
The district appealed the fines. A Cal/OSHA spokeswoman said as a result of the appeal, the fines were decreased based on new evidence, adjustments of the severity of the violations, an abatement credit and a “good faith penalty adjustment” given to the district for promising to change or fix problems.
The resulting $7,700 fine is 17.5% of the originally proposed $44,000.
The resolution of this case comes one week after a federal report was critical of Cal/OSHA for procedures and results of the appeals process for fines which vary widely from federal precedent.
Federal OSHA intends to bring states’ citation and appeals practices more in line with its own. Beginning Oct. 1, 2010, federal OSHA is reducing the discounts given for such factors as company size, employer history and good faith effort to correct problems.
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Tags: Cal/OSHA, electrocuted, state programs
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October 12th, 2010 at 10:19 am
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October 13th, 2010 at 8:41 am
$7,700 for a life. The school district got off scott free. Did they give the employee a 17.5% discount? I dont think he should be dead for eternity i vote to give him 17.5% of his life back. Who will second the motion? Are all Californians brain dead????
October 13th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Perhaps, but it’s only because the inhabitants are not real Californians, because California is comprised mostly of foreigners now and they make the rules to suit themselves and their situations at the time, when when it blows up in their faces, they scream like a stuck pig. As you can tell, I am a bit offended by your generalities. I live in Oregon now and trust me, we have our fair share of brain dead idiots here as well. Oh wait, those idiots are our elected officials.
Poor guys. I feel sorry for him and his family. If he didn’t feel safe working on the equipment, then he should have insisted that the school district hire someone with expertise.
October 19th, 2010 at 9:16 am
From the story published above he had asked to have a qualified person do the job. He was forced to work on this equipment by his employeer. If you are told to do a job you are not qualified to do for fear of loosing your job what would you do quit??? Maybe if you were in a job that allowed you to save a rather large nest egg so you and you family could go on with life as usuall. However this is not the case in most situations. Most people cannot afford to quit their jobs on the spur of the moment because they feel unsafe. My remark was utter contempt for the supervisor who cares so little for their employees safety and welfare!!!! Im sorry you feel offended maybe you need to revisit your convictions as far as employment go’s. I don’t believe the employee changed any rules to suit himself. I feel the employeer had no respect or concern for his employee and his welfare!!!!!
October 19th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
First point: It’s absolutely tragic that someone got electrocuted.
Second Point: The article does not go into any detail about what the additional evidence was to reduce the severity and penalties.
Third Point: Without knowledge of the second point, an intelligent opinion cannot be made about how much culpability the employer had.
In most cases, OSHA shows up, does a brief investigation and then writes the most severe penalties knowing that the company will appeal and before seeing all the evidence. I have personally seen cases where documented training was provided 3 days prior to an inspection and then been written up for serious violations for not training and using the equipment provided to him. You have to appeal it to get the evidence before the OSHA managers so it can be evaluated.
Original serious violations were for: Qualified Person, working on energized equipment and failing to lock-out. One of these were dropped completely. Perhaps there was some evidence that the employee himself was in fact trained in how to lock-out the equipment?
October 19th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Sheral…. I am not sure what foreigners have to do with this at all……
Please educate yourself and think about things before posting such discriminative and nonsense comments. And by the way…. California is full of the righful owners of the land…. Mexicans! Do you even know a little history? However, this is irrelevant!
It is just incredible and sad to see that human life means almost nothing now days…..
October 19th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Someone lost their life needlessly because the correct person wasn’t hire to do the job, and that cost $7,700, sounds like in Cal. its cheaper to let workers attempt dangerous work than hire contractors to do job. GLAD I DON’T LIVE OR WORK IN CA.
October 28th, 2010 at 10:33 am
al and all others Don’t think this school district will pay only $7700.00. The school district will pay workers compensation claims in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. OSHA fines are the least expensive part of sloppy safety processes. A huge fine usually makes money less available for the improvements and in the case of the school dictrict the citizens pay it. They are the employer. The survivors and heirs of the deceased do not get a dime of the fine. All employees are protected from discrimination (termination or dicipline) for refusing to do work that a “reasonable man” would refuse, under the National Labor Relations Act Section 8(a)5. These are things that all employees should know. Unions teach their members these things- but then labor unions are obsolete in many people’s view.
October 8th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Desert Sands Unified School District, La Quinta, CA. Judge ruled not guilty then it was shredded by DSUSD
Administrators thought it was more important to have discipline imposed rather than follow a Judges Orders that indicated they were not imposing discipline upon the correct people.
Well, when you have money and fame the laws don’t apply to you. Our politicians and big corporate CEOs prove this day in and day out…. Desert Sands Unified School District proved it by shredding court ruling of not guilty to continue preventing an employees right to work for other employers.
Need more people interested enough to read this Blogg and make comments on it. Not certain how to gain more readers presently.
What to include that will make it more interesting for more people to read this and leave their comments is something you could mention.
Please read this and direct your comments to persons that can be of assistance since this injustice has gone on long enough.
Desert Sands Unified School District proved it by shredding court ruling of not guilty to continue preventing an employees right to work for other employers.
Imposing discipline on the wrong person was of no importance to them.
A Judge recognized wrong person was being disciplined but that was ignored by administrators even after a Judgement of not guilty in a court of law that all persons are supposed to recognize.
Guess being foolish enough to think Judgements are to be obeyed was another foolish concept since administrators are allowed to shred or ignore what a court of law makes a Judgement on.
Then as much as almost five years later did it again.
Even verbal evidence that Desert Sands Unified School District is still ignoring a Judges decision made long ago that there was no evidence to support Desert Sands Unified School District Allegations.
Since the first year and a half was not enough for them to illegally ignore a Judges Decision where Desert Sands Unified School District had every…