Employers’ Disregard or Disrespect of Safety Laws and Regulations Is Widespread
Workers here in our part of the country are employed in some of the most dangerous jobs in any industry. It is disrespectful to think they do not know they face serious risks of bodily harm or even death each day, especially those employed in construction, trucking, transportation, or warehousing. For details, read The Reality of Widespread Industrial Work Accident Deaths in Illinois and Indiana: Warning to Our Workers and New 2024 OSHA Top Safety Law Violations List: Continued Disrespect with High Risk Of Severe Work Accidents.
Safety agencies, and those advocating for worker victims and their loved ones, likewise understand the hazards and risks on most worksites in Illinois and Indiana. Falls, electrocutions, motor vehicle accidents, machinery, equipment, or tool injuries: there are an amazing number of ways someone can be permanently hurt or die while on the job from recognized dangers. See, e.g., Chicago Road Construction Worker Accidents: List of Third Parties Potentially Liable for On-the-Job Injuries.
Most safety risks are not mysteries to anyone, especially the employers and those with possession, custody, or control of aspects of the jobsite. There are industrial standards that define risks and hazards and how best to protect people from harm, for one thing. And then, of course, there are legal duties of care and safety set up under law and regulation to keep workers safe.
These are legal mandates: they are not an option. These duties are regulatorily required and create legal liability if they are not followed. Read, Worker Rights Under Federal Law: OSHA Protections and Employer Violations.
So, it is shocking to understand how often – and how regularly — those with these legal duties choose to disregard or disrespect them. Time and again, these companies, supervisors, managers, and organizations decide to place profits over people even after they have been caught in violation and penalized; regardless of how their decisions are putting lives at risk.
It is particularly infuriating and disheartening to realize how often this is happening in Chicago.
In December 2024, for instance, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued news releases detailing OSHA violations across the country. OSHA reported more employers with safety violations from its Chicago Region than any other location in the country (Atlanta came in second). Consider the following:
1. Roofing Contractor: 8 inspections in 5 years; $262,000 in 2024 fines
On December 4, 2024, OSHA confirmed that safety inspectors have cited Fino Exterior (fka Arellano Roofing Corp.) of Lake Zurich, Illinois, eight (8) times since 2020 for failing to protect workers in its roofing contracting business from falls from elevations. OSHA pointed out that these types of accidents are “…the leading cause of fatal and serious injuries among people employed in the construction industry.”
The roofing company was cited for thirteen (13) safety violations in three different inspections within a four-month time period in 2024 alone. OSHA inspectors saw workers “…atop residential structures without legally required fall protection equipment on four occasions.” They also saw other safety violations involving:
- Permitting employees to work near energized power lines.
- Not providing employees with required hard hats.
- Failing to train workers in fall protection hazards and prevention.
- Lack of eye protection for workers operating pneumatic nail guns.
- Improper use of ladders.
The proposed penalty: $262,631.00. The company still has $65,115 in unpaid OSHA penalties.
From OSHA Chicago South Area Director James Martineck:
“Fino Exterior’s blatant disregard for its employees’ safety is a callous invitation to tragedy. All too often, our inspectors find construction contractors violating regulations repeatedly in their misguided belief that their workers will not fall victim to serious injuries or worse.
A worker can lose their footing and fall off a roof in seconds. Falls from elevation can cause life-altering and deadly injuries all of which can be prevented by using required protective equipment and training workers in its use. Employers who ignore their obligations are putting their workers’ lives and well-being in serious risk.”
2. Metal Products Manufacturer: Power Press Amputations, $182,000 in fines
On December 9, 2024, OSHA released details of fines assessed a bakeware company, G&S Metal Products Co. Inc., after two workers suffered amputations while on task due to unguarded machines. Both amputation injuries involved working with a power press. The second tragic injury happened within two weeks of the first accident.
OSHA inspectors determined fines to be $182,000 for one willful violation and five serious violations of safety laws set up to protect against unguarded machinery accidents. OSHA reports that the two amputations correlated not only to the company failing to: (1) equip its machinery with adequate guarding but also (2) not enforcing critical safety protocols, including establishing proper lockout/tagout procedures, and (3) failed to provide effective employee training in machine safety.
From OSHA Area Director Howard Eberts:
“These two workers must live with permanent injuries because their employer failed to ensure that adequate guarding was in place. G&S Metal Products Co. Inc. must take immediate action to evaluate and address machine safety across its operations. Employers have an obligation to adhere to basic safety standards to ensure every worker returns home safely.”
3. Construction Company: Extensive History of Fall Safety Violations
On December 9, 2024, OSHA announced an employer failed safety inspections for the third year in a row, continuing to place workers at risk of permanent harm or death in a fall from an elevation. The Zion construction company had failed OSHA inspections in 2022 and 2023, and when OSHA inspections returned to its worksite in 2024, they found continuing noncompliance with established safety regulations.
The latest 2024 safety violations involved employees roofing a residential structure without required fall protections. This was the second time in six months that OSHA found this happening on the company’s worksite, and the fifth (5th) time inspectors had found this happening in the past two years.
Miguel A. Esquina Reyes, operating as Corner Construction Corp., is described by OSHA as “…a Zion contractor with an extensive history of endangering workers by exposing them to fall hazards,” with the inspectors finding that “[t]wice in 6 months, Corner Construction Corp. exposes employees to serious risks.”
From OSHA Chicago North Area Director Sukhvir Kaur:
“OSHA often finds contractors violating the same safety regulations repeatedly, because they believe their workers will not fall victim to injury. It takes just seconds to lose footing, to fall off a roof and suffer serious and all-too-often fatal injuries. Miguel Reyes continues to show a chronic disregard for safe work operations and a willingness to jeopardize his employees’ lives and well-being.”
Cited for allowing employees to work without protection at heights greater than six feet and for the unsafe use of ladders, Corner Construction received three violations – one willful, one repeat and one serious – for which the company faces $266,175 in proposed penalties.
4. National Solar Panel Company: Blatant, Continuing Pattern of Fall Protection Violations
On December 16, 2024, OSHA inspectors found that employees were being required to work without legally mandated fall protection while installing solar panels on Chicago homes in June 2024. When they returned several weeks later, in August 2024, things had not changed. These workers were still at risk of serious or fatal harm from fall accidents on the job.
Accordingly, OSHA cited the solar panel and battery storage company, Sunrun Installation Services Inc., with two repeat safety violations, and proposed $288,087 in penalties.
No surprise to this employer: OSHA confirms that Sunrun, headquartered in San Francisco, “…has been cited previously for similar violations in Massachusetts in 2022 and New Jersey in 2023.”
From OSHA Chicago North Area Director Sukhvir Kaur:
“It is unacceptable that Sunrun Installation Services Inc. allowed workers to be exposed to falls at two separate locations within weeks. Sunrun must take immediate action to ensure no employee works at heights above six feet without using required fall protection. Falls from elevation can cause life-altering and deadly injuries, all of which can be prevented through proper protective equipment and worker training. Employers who ignore their obligations are putting their workers’ lives and well-being in serious risk.”
Duty to Keep Workers Safe on the Job: Injury Liability for Breach of Duty of Care
Employers who have hired people to work for them in for-profit enterprises have legal duties to keep those workers safe on the job as they create revenue for the company. Other individuals and entities also have legal duties of care to protect workers on the job.
For more, read: Premises Liability and Workplace Accidents: Third Party Injury Claims; Multiple Employers on the Construction Site: Who Is Liable For Construction Worker Accidents? and Legal Liability for Delivery Truck Accident Injuries: How Many Have Responsibility for the Crash?
Sadly, as most workers in Chicago as well as all of Illinois and Indiana can attest, employers and others with these safety responsibilities are lax, complacent, or downright insulting when it comes to safety measures on the job site. These examples from one month of OSHA news releases regarding the Chicago Region are merely a small sampling of these widespread failures to protect workers.
For many scenarios, the only true change happens after there has been a serious or deadly accident and the worker victim and their loved ones institute their legal avenues for justice through personal injury claims for damages that involve things like medical care; lost wages; lost earning capacity; and more.
The sad truth for many Chicago workers, especially those on our local construction sites, is that they are facing great, unacceptable dangers on the jobsite despite defined legal duties of care designed to keep them safe.
For more on damages, read:
- 10 Types of Injury Damages That May Be Awarded to Accident Victims
- Damages are Different: Workers Compensation vs. Third Party Personal Injury Claims
- Wrongful Death Damages After Fatal Work Accidents in Illinois or Indiana
- Catastrophic Injury Accidents: Special Legal Protections for Victims and Families in Indiana and Illinois
- Why a Lawyer who is a Trial Attorney Is Important for Accident Victims in Personal Injury Cases
- Construction Accident Expert Witnesses in Work Accident Claims.
Chicago construction workers face a particularly high risk of being hurt in an on-the-job work accident today. Falls, collisions, machinery accidents, electrocutions, and more are very real dangers. Please be careful out there!
