The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered two companies operating a behavioral health facility to pay OSHA $30,515 in attorney’s fees after failing to comply with a subpoena for documents.
UHS of Fuller Inc. and UHS of Delaware Inc. failed to provide documents and evidence requested by OSHA as part of 2019 workplace violence inspection at an Attleboro, MA, behavioral health facility.
One of the pieces of evidence requested was video footage of workplace violence incidents involving employees at the facility.
After failing to comply, the Department of Labor’s Regional Office of the Solicitor petitioned the court to enforce the subpoena for the requested video, according to a news release.
The court found both companies’ opposition to submitting the video wasn’t substantially justified and ordered them to comply and pay OSHA attorney’s fees incurred in response to their arguments.
“The law makes a clear distinction between good faith arguments and those that lack merit,” Regional Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher said in the news release. “If a recipient chooses to engage in the latter, the recipient should expect to be held accountable.”
UHS, one of the largest healthcare service providers in the U.S., is a hospital management company that operates 300 behavioral health facilities nationwide. It has been cited by OSHA four times since 2017.