Construction Worker Deaths on The Strip:

Lax safety oversight is paid notice on the Hill

Government should raise fines for dangerous sites, labor experts testify

Wed, Apr 30, 2008 (2 a.m.)

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Construction Deaths

Mystery surrounds CityCenter fatality (4-29-2008)
A stricter OSHA seen after Sun series (4-22-2008)

Labor experts told a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday that weak government oversight of workplace safety is putting workers at greater risk and contributing to on-the-job fatalities, including in Las Vegas.

Experts testifying before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee generally agreed that government should increase fines and step up criminal prosecutions to deter companies from allowing unsafe conditions.

“We need a law with teeth so that employers will be vigilant about complying with safety laws,” said the committee’s chairman, Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

The comments were directed at laws administered by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, created 37 years ago this week to give government a hand in improving workplace safety. The act, signed into law by President Nixon, succeeded in reducing accidents and fatalities.

In recent years, however, government safety regulators have exercised lax oversight and worker safety has suffered, witnesses said.

Citing stories from the Las Vegas Sun, Peg Seminario, health and safety director of the AFL-CIO, testified about the deaths of 10 construction workers on the Strip over the past 17 months.

“In more than 30 billion dollars worth of currently ongoing building projects along the Strip, construction workers are facing massive speedup pressure to complete projects on time amid unsafe conditions, including inadequate fall protection measures, faulty equipment, and lack of required safety training that led to some of the deaths,” she said.

After the deaths of workers Harold Billingsley and Harvey Englander, two of five men who died at MGM Mirage’s $8 billion CityCenter project, Nevada OSHA investigators found numerous safety violations, Seminario said. But the agency withdrew the citations after meeting privately with the contractors.

“The initial citations and penalties in OSHA enforcement cases, weak to begin with, are reduced even further in the resolution of cases,” Seminario told the committee.

As a result of the Sun’s stories, “federal OSHA and the Nevada Legislature are examining Nevada OSHA enforcement practices, which already are changing,” she said. “The public scrutiny has also led to much greater attention to safety requirements at the Las Vegas construction projects on the Las Vegas Strip.”

The Washington front

But action is needed on the federal level, senators and witnesses agreed.

“We’ve seen the difference when we have good enforcement and effective law — boom, the numbers just go down like a stone, the violations go down, the loss of lives go down,” Kennedy said. “Then when there’s a relaxation, we find out what happens out there in the workforce.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said OSHA “simply cannot be as strong as it could be — and should be — if employers are able to consider the rules optional and if they believe that fines are nothing more than the cost of doing business.”

Kennedy and Murray introduced a bill last year to raise fines on employers from $7,000 to $10,000 for “serious” safety violations, and from $70,000 to $100,000 for “willful” violations of the law.

The bill would also allow prosecutors to bring felony charges against employers who knowingly put workers at risk. A similar bill is pending in the House.

The bill, which has been introduced in at least each of the past three congressional sessions, would also allow employees and unions to appeal informal settlement conferences in which OSHA commonly reduces fines during meetings with employers.

Shrinking penalties

In conjunction with the hearing, Kennedy’s office issued a report showing that reducing citations during informal conferences has become commonplace nationally. In all fatality investigations in 2007, the initial median penalty of $5,900 was reduced an average of $2,225, the report said.

“In many cases where a worker is killed, the employer never has to pay anything,” Kennedy said. “How can we expect workplaces to become safer if OSHA won’t bother to collect fines from employers who break the law?”

Ranking Republican committee member Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said any OSHA reform should emphasize drug and alcohol testing and preventive measures such as training, consultations and rewards for companies that create safe working conditions.

“Penalties are a part of the equation but, just like the death penalty, cannot deter every crime so, too, is their utility limited,” Enzi said.

‘Dark cloud’

Also on Tuesday, MGM Mirage Chief Executive Terry Lanni made his first public remarks about the deaths at CityCenter. In an interview for broadcast at 9 tonight on Las Vegas ONE, Lanni lamented the loss of life, calling it a “dark cloud.” He emphasized the responsibility of workers and employers to follow safety rules.

“We continue to reinforce with our contractors and subcontractors that they have to follow all these policies,” Lanni said. “The problem is, I guess when you have 8,000 people on a work site you don’t necessarily have the ability to control that.”

The comments came three days after electrician Mark Wescoat fell to his death at CityCenter.

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

By Felicity

4/30/08 at 8:06 a.m.

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How noble of the MGM Mirage to finally speak. Again you can not enforce safety when Perini is being over looked by OSHA. Everyone knows this is going on. Stop pretending that you are trying to fix this problem when the problem lies with OSHA and Perini. Make an examples out of Perini as well as the "little" guys then maybe you will save lives.
By angryfamily

4/30/08 at 10:58 a.m.

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Increasing these fines and then ENFORCING them is the first step. Thank goodness there are those out there that are taking a closer look and not willing to be bought off. Yes there is a lot of money here in this town but in my eyes there will never be enough to replace what these men brought to the lives of their loved ones. Good for you Felicity for keeping your voice heard and shouting out again and again. Many thanks to Alexandra as well. Keep pushing. Your words are definately being read. I would hate to think these men died for nothing. As for those of you trying to bully me into keeping quiet, it will not work. My loved one is gone but not forgotten. He did practice safety. He was committed to his job and the safety of himself and others. He should have justice and by that I don't mean some measly little fine that the company paid. The laws should reflect stiffer penalties and light shed on the relationships between the union officials, contractors and OSHA. It's insulting, immorral and horrifying. These men should be alive today.
By cliffee

4/30/08 at 4:55 p.m.

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Are higher fines really going to change anything? It has been my experience that an employer can provide training, materials and incentives and the employees will continue to cut corners and endanger themselves. With all due respect for the families of the victims of the construction fatalities, lets compare apples to oranges. Lets develop fines for those employees that are found to be in obvious misconduct from their employers safety policies. I mean, since we're in the mood to increase fines and citations. How many people working in construction will still be working there if they are eligible for a $7000.00 fine when they don't follow the rules. Oh, lets concider the affect the increase in fines will have on the local mom-n-pop businesses. Yup, run them right out of business with one or two serious violations. The real questions here is why Nevada's legal representation for the Department of Business and Industry is unwilling to pursue willful violations. We should focus on improving the process as it exists today (get rid of corrupt officials, start pursuing willful violations, etc...) And never forget the fact that OSHA has to treat businesses the same way the Department of Public Safety treats people... innocent till proven guilty.
By angryfamily

5/1/08 at 8:45 a.m.

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I'm sorry Cliffee but $18k in fines for the loss of my loved one is not nearly enough of a fine. his life was worth much more than that to me. Had he been at fault than maybe the take would be different. But when you have one death after another and clearly defined neglect by the contractors and in our case the union officials themselves, than yes, tougher fines would be the order of the day. Make them pay. If you have mom-n-pop out there that cannot afford these fines than they should probably be extra careful. These huge companies are paying the fines rather than taking a greater interest in safety. It's much easier to pay that measley fine(which will more than likely be forgiven later) than suffer penalties by getting behind schedule.
By cliffee

5/1/08 at 11:41 a.m.

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As I said in my previous posting, "With all due respect." And, you are absolutely right, the companies are paying the fines and continue to due the least amount possible in the safety realm, in many cases. To reiterate, tune up the enforcement system as it is now. The protocols for Nevada OSHA have many differrent routes to develop citations and the fines associated with the citations. Depending on circumstances and exposures, fines can be quite costly. The real question is why the administration does not back the efforts of the compliance officers, or the citations that the officers initially present.
By fenyxfx

5/3/08 at 10:15 a.m.

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The problem with fines is they don't bring any sense of closer to the victim's family no matter what the cost because no one can put financial value on life. And then it hurts small businesses with fewer resources to begin with while barely being noticed by large corporations. Did you know big companies budget for fines? They just consider it cost of doing business.

To give real "teeth" to these punishments, responsible parties need to face real consequences like jail time. If you knowingly have a jobsite running without proper safety precautions in place and someone dies, that's akin to murder. Manslaughter at the very least. Why not give these people something more concrete to fear so they'll actually enforce theirs and OSHA's regulations.