OSHA Cracks Down on Rampant Workplace Safety Violations

Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA authorities are cracking down on local companies that have repeatedly violated the agency's workplace safety rules and regulations. However, this has not deterred some local companies from putting their workers at risk.

Even with OSHA’s Mobile-area office eyeing it because of previous citations, Opelika-based D&J Enterprises has failed to make the workplace safer for its employees. The civil engineering company is on the hook for over $60,000 in OSHA fines this month for one willful and one repeated violation.

Mobile Practice Areas

The “willful” citation involved an egregious display of carelessness when it came to the safety of the company’s workers. As reported by AL.com, the company allowed employees to work in an excavation in order to install new water and sewer lines at a depth of 10 feet without proper cave-in protection. To boot, the repeated citation was a result of D&J not providing training and information to their workers that would allow them to recognize and avoid cave-in hazards.

Another local company has also drawn the attention of local OSHA regulators. In Madison County, Ultratec, a pyrotechnics and special effects company, was cited for 15 violations stemming from two explosions at their plant that occurred last October. The company previously received 14 violations in the wake of the accident. Six of the new violations were labeled as “serious,” including the employer’s failure to “develop, document, and utilize specific procedures to prevent machinery from starting up during maintenance and servicing,” according to OSHA area director Ramona Morris in the violations letter that was issued to the company.

Overall, in 2014, the last year that statistics for OSHA were reported, there were 70 fatal occupational injuries in Alabama. Transportation incidents, slip and falls, and contact with objects and equipment were the prevailing causes of these fatalities. What can you do if you’ve been the victim of a workplace accident? If you or a loved one has been injured in a workplace accident, please complete our free, no-risk case review.