Justice Dept. Accused of Ignoring Safety Cases

The Justice Department is failing to prosecute companies whose workers have died or been severely injured because of the companies’ “disregard of fundamental safety principles,” a safety research group charged Friday.

Cases involving criminal violations of occupational safety laws have been referred by the Labor Department to the Justice Department for prosecution but are being ignored, said a report by the National Safe Workplace Institute, a Chicago-based organization.

“Every day the attorney general delays prosecution of violators of the Occupational Safety and Health Act is another nail in the coffin of U.S. workplace safety,” said Joseph A. Kinney, director of the institute.

Law’s Criminal Provisions

Although the OSHA law passed in 1970 has criminal provisions that include prison terms of six months and fines of up to $10,000 for company officials who violate safety standards, “the federal government has yet to take legal action resulting in the imprisonment of a single individual,” the report said. It said that 7,500 Americans died last year from work-related injuries.

A Justice Department spokesman declined comment on the report, saying that the department has not received a copy of it.

However, Frank A. White, deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, said: “The main thrust of our activities is on the civil side.” He said that the agency, which sends inspectors to workplaces to check on safety compliance, issues civil penalties in thousands of cases a year.

‘May Not Be Huge Cases’

Criminal cases, he said, would involve “only the most serious and egregious corporate behavior,” and because the criminal penalties are relatively small, “from the Justice Department standpoint, they may not be huge cases,” he said.

The workplace institute report said that the Justice Department is delaying action on six cases referred for possible prosecution by the Labor Department. White said the Justice Department “has many cases to consider and must prioritize them.”

Only a single occupational safety case has been tried in criminal court during the Reagan Administration, and that involved an assault by a company representative on an OSHA inspector, according to the report.

Charges ‘Ripple Effect’

The institute charged that the lack of criminal prosecution of safety violation cases has created “a ripple effect throughout American workplaces.”