Because the availability of new plots was becoming very limited, a cemetery company in a major metropolitan area began selling single plots wherein a husband and wife ultimately would be interred one on top of the other. When the first spouse died, a grave was excavated to a depth sufficient to leave room for the future interment of the surviving spouse. To “square off” the corners of the grave, a member of the cemetery’s grounds crew would enter the newly dug grave with a spade or trowel to perform the task.

One of the groundskeepers filed a complaint with OSHA claiming that it was unsafe to work in the graves without shoring. An inspector from OSHA decided that the double graves were deep enough to require proper shoring before a gravedigger enters them to square them off. The cemetery’s general manager replied that no other cemetery’s procedure included shoring and that if required to do so, his company would become uncompetitive.

What recourse does the general manager have?

(This case problem is drawn from the experience of one of the authors in legal practice.)