Some of the most dangerous industrial worksites in the entire country operate here in Indiana and Illinois, at our local steel mills; railyards; commercial and residential construction sites; highways and interstates; ports and harbors; warehouses; agricultural operations; and manufacturing plants and facilities. Each day, workers enter these recognized high-risk jobsites with courage and dedication.
They do so with protections defined in longstanding safety regulations creating legal duties of care to be met by their employers and others in possession, custody, or control of aspects of that workplace. Companies must do everything that is reasonable and prudent to keep people safe on the property and premises where business operations are taking place.
Employers understand that if there is a recognized danger or hazard, they have a legal responsibility to halt operations until safety is restored in a Shutdown, Turnaround, or Outage (STO). For more, read Shutdown, Turnaround, or Outage (STO) Accidents in Indiana and Illinois.
When Workers See Serious Danger on the Job Site: No STO Authority
However, the reality is that workers themselves are the first to know their jobsite has become dangerous or deadly because not only are (1) they on the scene itself but (2) they have the knowledge and expertise to recognize when something is going terribly wrong.
Nevertheless, workers themselves do not have an ability to halt operations, no matter how hazardous the situation. Workers cannot legally order an STO.
Of course, when a worker at a local steel mill; construction site; or manufacturing plant sees something dangerous on the worksite, then the right thing to do is speak up immediately about the hazard when lives are at stake or people could suffer serious injury. However, in this event the law distinguishes between the worker’s right to stop working and the ability to stop work operations.
Worker’s Limited Ability to Fight Imminent Dangers on the Worksite
Under federal law, any worker that believes the jobsite is dangerous and unsafe has the right to refuse to continue working in that jobsite. For more, read our earlier discussion in Dangerous Work Site: Your Right to Stop Work to Avoid Injury or Death.
Of importance here: workers cannot stop the entire workplace operations on their own no matter how serious the hazard. Instead, the worker’s only legal action in the face of danger is to refuse to continue work in the face of perilous working conditions, and even then, that right to refuse to work has its limitations.
Refusal to Work and Claim for Wrongful Discrimination
The legal protections for workers who bravely refuse to continue working in the face of danger are to file legal claims for damages based upon wrongful retaliation by the employer. Essentially, if the worker refuses to work because of imminent danger on the jobsite, and the employer responds by firing them, then the terminated worker may have a claim for retaliatory discharge. And, under the current federal law, their remedy is to file a legal complaint for wrongful termination within a very short time frame (30 days under federal regulation).
These workers will have a serious burden of proof, as well. They will have to support their refusal to continue work by meeting federal criteria as well as showing they took all the “proper steps” before refusing to continue work, including evidence that they asked the employer to be assigned to other work on the site and that they remained on the site until being ordered to leave by the boss.
For details, read 12 CFR 1977.12, entitled “Discrimination Against Employees Exercising Rights Under the Williams Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.”
Employers’ Internal “Stop-Work Authority” Policies
Of course, nothing stops any particular company or employer from developing their own safety standards and policies that allow their workers to halt operations in the face of imminent danger on the site. There is no law that forbids a company from doing more than the minimum required by federal safety regulation.
Here, companies in various industries have taken additional action to empower their workers on the worksite. They have done so with internal safety policies that allow their workers to have “stop work authority.” Indeed, “stop work authority” is promoted in more and more high-risk industries as a key safety factor to avoid accidents, incidents, and of course, legal liability for breaches in duties of safety and care.
What is Stop Work Authority?
Under these policies, employees are instructed that “stop work authority” is another way of saying the worker has “stop work responsibility,” to protect not only themselves but their fellow workers on the jobsite. In fact, in some companies not only is “stop work authority” given to workers, but there are established incentives to encourage workers not to hesitate in acting to stop operations if they recognize the presence of danger on the site.
These incentives include things like company appreciation through honoring employees who are brave enough to act and stop work operations because of a perceived risk as well as providing monetary compensation for courageous “stop work” acts.
Read, “Stop-Work Authority Becomes Stop-Work Responsibility,” written by Rocky Rowlett and published on February 3, 2021 by Construction Executive and “Stop-work authority: Empowering workers to halt unsafe situations,” written by Joe Bush and published on July 26, 2018 by Safety and Health Magazine.
Workers Harmed in Unsafe Worksites with Recognized Dangers or Hazards
Of course, in the real world of Illinois and Indiana, many workers will tell you that while “stop work authority” sounds great on paper, there is still a great fear of retaliation (including but not limited to being fired) when faced with a dangerous situation on the worksite.
Things like peer pressure to keep things moving along and not be a tattletale, as well as making immediate supervisors angry at being threatened with a missed production deadline, are concrete concerns for workers in many of our most hazardous jobsites. (For instance, read our earlier revelation that almost half of all fatal residential roofer falls (49%) were acknowledged by fellow workers as victims not wearing necessary personal protective equipment.)
Without solid legal stop-work authority protections in place, dangers and risks on the worksites of Indiana and Illinois will continue to result in serious or deadly accidents where one or more workers are catastrophically harmed or killed in a work accident. Internal policies allowing “stop-work authority” are not uniform in the law nor are they standardized in our industries.
Even more concerning are the worksites where there is no company safety policy that includes any invitation for a worker to exercise “stop work authority” at all.
For these accident victims and their loved ones, the solid legal protections remain those of civil claims for justice to be filed pursuant to the state injury laws of Indiana and Illinois. Things like medical expenses, lost wages, lost future earning capacity, past and future rehabilitation costs, pain and suffering, and more can be presented for legal recompense to those found legally liable for the incident. This may include several defendants, such as the company employer, any repair and maintenance company, suppliers, distributors, other contractors on the site, and more.
See:
- How Great is the Danger of Workers Dying in Fatal Work Accidents in 2022?
- What Is The Most Dangerous Job in Indiana and Illinois?
- Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims for On-the-Job Accidents
- The Two Main Differences Between Workers Compensation and Personal Injury Claims for Accident Victims in Indiana and Illinois
- Fatal Accidents and Wrongful Death Lawsuits in Indiana and Illinois.
Workers may have a detailed understanding of their workplace and its hazards, but they remain with little real power to keep safe on the job. Meanwhile, many companies will continue to put profits over people and allow dangerous conditions on the site with tragic consequences. Please be careful out there!
