Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, August 2, and Friday, August 9
Oklahoma Killers
An Edmond contractor with a history of workplace safety violations dating back to 2018, including three related to the dangers in underground trenches, was found disregarding U.S. Department of Labor regulations.
In February 2024, investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned a 61-year-old pipe layer employed by Jerlow Construction Co. suffered fatal injuries when a 9-foot deep trench collapsed at a residential work site near Shawnee. The agency determined the employer allowed their employees to work in an excavation without proper protections, including shielding, benching, sloping or other devices. The incident occurred as employees worked below the surface to install an 8-inch water line.
OSHA issued citations to Jerlow Construction for one repeat violation and three serious violations following this incident’s investigation. Infractions include failing to provide adequate systems to prevent trench cave-ins, train employees on how to recognize hazards related to excavations and perform daily inspections to verify safe entry conditions for the excavation. The company faces $85,173 in proposed penalties, an amount set by federal statute.
N.C. Discriminator
Suncakes NC, LLC, a North Carolina-based company, and Suncakes, LLC, a Texas-based company doing business as IHOP (collectively “Suncakes”), will pay $40,000 and provide other relief to settle a religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Suncakes hired a cook at its Woodlawn Road location in Charlotte in January 2021. At the time of hire, the employee requested and was granted a religious accommodation of not working on Sundays to honor his religious observances. After a change in management in April 2021, the new general manager expressed hostility toward the accommodation and required the employee to work on Sunday, April 25 and Sunday, May 9. After the employee told the general manager that due to his religious beliefs, he would no longer work on Sundays, the general manager fired him.
The general manager was also alleged to have made comments to other employees such as, “religion should not take precedence over [the employee’s] job” and that the employee supposedly “thinks it is more important to go to church than to pay his bills.”
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides for religious accommodations in the workplace and protects individuals from religious discrimination and retaliation. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process.
Under the two-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, Suncakes will pay $40,000 in monetary damages to the employee, provide annual training to managers on the provisions of Title VII, post a notice to employees about the settlement, and revise their current policies to expressly include protection for religious accommodations. The revised policy will be posted in all 17 IHOP locations operated by Suncakes in North Carolina.
Texas Endangerers
Despite receiving warnings and citations for more than a decade, a Jacksonville pallet manufacturer’s history of failing to protect employees from the risk of amputation continues, a U.S. Department of Labor follow-up inspection has found.
Inspectors with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration returned to M&H Crates Inc. in February 2024 and found lockout/tagout violations similar to those discovered during inspections in 2012 and in subsequent visits in 2014, 2020 and 2022. The company now faces $254,527 in proposed penalties.
During two inspections in February 2022, OSHA cited M&H Crates for one willful violation and 12 serious violations related to unsafe machine operations, forklift drivers not using required seatbelts, fall hazards, and workers not trained to understand or follow lockout/tagout procedures to prevent sudden machine starts or movements.
“M&H Crates Inc. continues to ignore its legal responsibility to comply with federal workplace safety standards,” explained OSHA Area Director Greg Wynn in Dallas. “We will use all measures available to us to hold this company accountable for its continued willingness to expose employees to the serious dangers that exist in manufacturing workplaces.”
Lockout/tagout violations are OSHA’s most frequently cited infractions in the manufacturing industry.