Boss Watch: 7/5 – 7/12

Jacob Morrison

Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, July 5, and Friday, July 12

Alabama Killers

A U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety investigation has found an industrial concrete construction contractor failed to follow required safety procedures that could have prevented a 65-year-old worker from suffering fatal injuries when a shipping container weighing more than four tons fell and struck the employee at a job site near Tuscaloosa.

Investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned the employee of Ballard Contractors Inc. in Moundville was guiding an 8,575-pound shipping container into place when one of the chains used to lift the box snapped. 

OSHA determined the company violated federal regulations by doing the following: 

  • Failing to ensure rigging equipment was rated properly to handle the container’s weight. 
  • Permitting an employee to work near or beneath a moving load while moving a container.
  • Allowing workers to use steel chain slings and a four-way chain lift without identification plates attached or load ratings indicated. 
  • Failing to perform periodic inspections of slings. 
  • Not ensuring fall protection was in place while workers connected rigging equipment to an overhead crane at heights of 11 feet.

“Ballard Contractors failed in its legal responsibility to provide its employees with a safe work environment, especially when it comes to dealing with the serious dangers of handling heavy loads,” said OSHA Area Office Director Joel Batiz in Birmingham, Alabama. “OSHA standards exist to help prevent tragedies such as this from occurring. Employers must recognize their duty to ensure the safety of their employees.”

Ballard Contractors Inc. received citations for eight violations related to its failures to protect workers from fall, struck-by and crushed-by hazards.

Texas Killers

A La Porte tank cleaning company again chose to disregard federal safety standards that may have protected their employees from hazardous working conditions and prevented another employee from suffering a fatal injury. In December 2023, just two days before Christmas, the wife and son of an employee at the company grew concerned when he didn’t return after his shift. Later that day, he was found unresponsive.

A workplace safety investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the fallen worker’s employer, Qualawash Holdings LLC – operating as Quala Services LLC – failed to ensure that atmospheric testing was done inside the tank before allowing the 53-year-old employee to enter it. The agency cited the company, whose employees clean tankers used to transport hazardous wastes, for eight repeat violations. 

OSHA cited Quala Services for the same violations in June 2020 after two workers succumbed while cleaning inside a tanker truck in November 2019.

“Had Quala Services acted responsibly and made the safety reforms as required in 2020, another employee would not have lost their life,” explained OSHA Area Director Larissa Ipsen in Houston. “This employer’s complete disregard for its employees’ safety is unacceptable. Complying with safety and health standards is not optional. OSHA will use all of its tools to ensure employers follow the law.” 

In addition to identifying the company’s failure to conduct required testing, OSHA cited the Quala Services for seven serious violations including the following:

  • Failing to implement measures to prevent unauthorized entry into a permit-required confined space.
  • Not providing an attendant while employees entered permit-required confined spaces.
  • Numerous failures related to the confined space entry permit, including:
    • Not identifying the authorized duration of entry.
    • Which rescue and emergency services to be summoned.
    • How to summon emergency services.
    • Failing to specify personal protective, rescue and communications equipment and alarm systems.
  • Overexposing employees to carbon monoxide.
  • Not protecting conductors that entered an electrical panel box from abrasions and leaving an electrical outlet without a cover plate.

Qualawash Holdings LLC faces $810,703 in proposed penalties for its violations.

Arkansas Child Abusers

The owner of a Benton tavern and restaurant has agreed to comply with a preliminary injunction obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor to stop the employer from violating federal regulations.

The action comes amid allegations that Tim’s Tavern and owner Tim Steppach failed to pay minimum and overtime wages as required, kept workers’ tips, employed children illegally and fired a worker who warned that the department would be notified.

Specifically, a February 2024 investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined the employer allowed several 14- and 15-year-old children to work outside legally permitted hours on school nights and weekends. Investigators also learned that — as far back as August 2022 — Steppach had failed to provide regular paychecks; did not pay minimum wage, overtime and tips as required; and neglected to keep records, all of which violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

The findings prompted the department’s Solicitor’s Office to seek a restraining order in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Arkansas Central Division to prevent Tim’s Tavern and Steppach from employee retaliation, oppressive child labor and illegally withholding employees’ minimum wage, overtime pay and tips.

Specifically, the preliminary injunction prohibits the employer from doing the following:

  • Threatening, intimidating, discriminating against, harming, or otherwise retaliating against the retaliation victim or other current and former employees for exercising their rights under the FLSA including cooperating with and reporting alleged violations to the department.
  • Contacting the retaliation victim directly.
  • Violating the child labor protections of the FLSA.

The department also filed a complaint seeking full relief for all of the FLSA violations, including paying employees for all owed minimum wages, overtime wages and withheld tips, and an equal amount in liquidated damages.

Dishonorable Mentions