Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/638772
26 PalletCentral • January-February 2016 palletcentral.com SAFETY current law, the maximum penalty has been criminal conviction of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of no more than $10,000 for a first offense and/or imprisonment of no more than six (6) months. By comparison, the 22 "state plan states" that manage their own OSHA programs, criminal prosecutions are brought more often because the state attorney generals can rely on state statutes – involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and even assault – to impose lengthier criminal sentences on employers whose workers die or are injured on the job than could normally be brought under the federal statute. The "Protecting America's Workers Act" (HR 2090 & S 1112), which was introduced in early 2015, would strengthen federal OSHA's ability to criminally prosecute violations by increasing potential monetary criminal penalties, expanding the consequences of "knowing" violations (a lesser standard than "willful") that result in death to a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and adding the ability to prosecute non-fatal injury cases by imposing up to 5 years in prison for knowing violations that result in serious physical harm. However, that legislation – which was also introduced in previous sessions of Congress under different bill numbers – lays dormant and has little chance of enactment while the Republicans continue to control the legislative agenda. Groups including the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been vocal in their opposition to the "PAW Act" and the expansion of criminal sanctions. Meanwhile, the United States attorneys who work in DOJ's environmental unit historically have been reluctant to devote considerable resources to case investigation, preparation and prosecution when it can only result in a misdemeanor conviction, so they have instead focused on the weightier sentences that can be imposed for violations of requirements under federal environmental laws. As a result, there are only a handful of reported criminal prosecutions under the federal OSH Act; in fact, there were only three in all of 2013. The new DOL/DOJ collaboration suggests that, until such time as the OSH Act itself is amended to include heightened criminal sanctions, workplace violations may be prosecuted creatively by The federal government is taking aim at occupational safety and health violations from a different perspective: criminal prosecution.