Illegal activities of Southern Bosses for the weeks between Friday, October 11, and Friday, October 25
Alabama Killers
A U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety investigation has found that a Huntsville countertop installation company could have prevented a 33-year-old employee from being struck by a stone slab weighing thousands of pounds by following federal safety standards at a Huntsville job site.
Investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that employees of Huntsville Granite and Marble LLC were using a forklift to take stone slabs off a storage rack when the slab became unsecured and struck the worker. OSHA found that an improperly secured load and a damaged rigging hook with a missing safety latch contributed to the incident.
OSHA determined the company violated federal regulations by doing the following:
- Failing to develop and institute safe procedures, including worker training, for moving stone slabs.
- Permitting workers to use a damaged rigging hook missing the safety latch.
- Allowing workers to use worn and damaged security straps.
- Failing to ensure forklift attachments were manufacturer approved.
- Neglecting to evaluate forklift operators’ performance at least every three years.
“Huntsville Granite and Marble didn’t uphold its duty to keep workers safe,” said OSHA Area Office Director Joel Batiz in Birmingham, Alabama. “With the right procedures, equipment, and training, this tragedy could have been avoided. We call on employers to make workplace safety a priority and use OSHA resources to safeguard their employees.”
OSHA issued five serious citations to Huntsville Granite and Marble for violations related to its failures to protect workers from struck-by, crushed-by and fall hazards. OSHA has proposed $29,035 in penalties to address the violations, an amount set by federal statute.
Georgia Killers
Federal safety inspectors found a Macon tire manufacturing facility with a history of safety and health violations could have prevented the fatal injuries sustained by a 57-year-old maintenance worker in April 2024.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated the fatal incident at Kumho Tire Georgia Inc., which occurred on April 10, 2024, when a worker was fatally injured after the machine they were working on unexpectedly started.
OSHA cited Kumho Tire Georgia after an investigation found the company bypassed safety procedures meant to prevent machinery from accidentally starting during maintenance. The company relied on basic on/off controls and sensors instead of following proper safety measures. As a result, the company was cited for one repeat, 12 serious, and two other-than-serious violations. The company was also cited for repeatedly failing to train authorized employees to safely perform servicing and maintenance activities.
“Kumho Tire Georgia has repeatedly failed to protect its employees, and this time that negligence resulted in a preventable tragedy,” said OSHA Area Director Joshua Turner in Atlanta. “Every year, thousands of these incidents occur, causing serious and sometimes fatal injuries. There is no excuse for endangering the lives of the employees who keep their operations running.”
The agency found the employer’s facility lacked sufficient machine guarding, designed to protect workers from caught-in hazards. Investigators also found missing guardrails and uncovered holes, leaving workers exposed to fall hazards. Kumho Tire Georgia Inc. faces a total of $271,930 in penalties.
Kumho Tire Georgia has a substantial history of non-compliance with safety and health requirements. Since 2015, the facility has been inspected nine times, resulting in 52 violations.
Oklahoma Thieves
The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and injunction to recover $120,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 177 Oklahoma restaurant workers whose employer deducted time for lunch breaks not taken and failed to pay employees for all hours worked.
The Sept. 18, 2024, judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma against Gregg Hansen – operator of Huddle House franchise locations in Ardmore, Edmond and Oklahoma City – follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found the employer’s pay practices from October 2019 to February 2023 violated federal minimum wage and overtime provisions.
“Gregg Hansen has deprived hundreds of low-wage workers at his Huddle House franchise locations of their full, hard-earned wages,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Michael Speer in Oklahoma City. “The Wage and Hour Division is determined to stop employers who repeatedly and willfully disregard federal labor regulations and hold them accountable for such blatant violations.”
The division previously cited the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based employer for similar violations at the same Oklahoma locations from 2016 to 2021, and at its locations in Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. The willful and repeated nature of Hansen’s Fair Labor Standards Act violations prompted the department to pursue legal remedies.
Dishonorable Mentions
- The Biden-Harris administration today announced that the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $1 billion in back wages and damages for our nation’s workers since the start of the Biden-Harris administration. The recoveries derive from investigations concluded by the division from Jan. 20, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2024
- The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent order requiring a Jacksonville Beach, FL water park – Adventure Landing – to pay $151,606 in penalties after investigators found the company assigned young teenagers to work late hours during the school year and as attendants on elevated water slides without certification.
- Federal workplace safety investigators have determined that a Temple, TX manufacturer and designer of school furnishings – Artco-Bell Corp – could have prevented an employee’s serious and permanent hand and arm injuries by installing required machine guards. The agency issued citations for 24 serious safety and health violations and assessed $257,183 in proposed penalties.
- The U.S. Department of Labor and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have entered into a conciliation agreement in which the federal contractor will pay $900,000 in back wages and interest to resolve alleged systemic racial hiring affecting 6,123 Black applicants at the center’s Dallas, TX facility.
- Hooters of America, LLC, a Georgia corporation operating a nationwide chain of restaurants known for wings, sports and “Hooters Girls,” will pay $250,000 and provide other relief to settle a race and color discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
- Waste Industries, providers of solid waste removal, recycling pickup and landfill operation services, will pay $3.1 million and provide extensive injunctive relief to settle a pattern-or-practice sex discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
- Lago Mar Properties, Inc., doing business as Lago Mar Resort & Beach Club (Lago Mar), a beachfront hotel and resort, agreed to settle a lawsuit under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), paying $100,000 in damages to a former employee, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.