Pro - Green Plight

A junior employee at Pro-Green's, Michael Jones, on August 13, 2004, was preparing a foundation at the bottom of a 12 feet deep trench for a seven-story building when the rain-soaked walls gave way, and he was buried alive under the mud. The organization he worked for, Pro-Green's Construction Company, had a contract to build a multi-complex building in a new housing scheme in Falmouth, Jamaica. Michael and an Excavator Operator, Ian Forrester, extracted water from the trench that was dug the previous day; after further digging, Michael entered the trench to sack the blocks when the trench collapsed. Forrester could feel his machine sliding toward the trench as the trench subsided, but he had no time to shout out a warning. It took the rescuers ten hours to retrieve the body.

An official from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), Mr. Oral Chinvee, who observed as the body was pulled from the mud, was acquainted with the Pro-Green's organization and Michael Jones, the Junior employee. One month before the incident, on Friday, August 13, 2004. Chinvee had responded to a complaint about a hazardous trench dug by Pro-Green's Construction Company on the complex and ordered the work to stop. As trench walls can easily give way, OSHA requires that trenches over five feet deep be sloped at a safe angle or shored up with braces. If a metal box is used, it must be large enough to protect a worker and strong enough to withstand the force of collapsing walls. Trained excavating safety personnel must examine the trench before workers may enter it. None of these conditions were met at the site.

Chinvee went to Pro-Green's office the following Monday and interviewed workers, including Michael Jones, with a tape recorder. Jones admitted for the record that the company did not always observe the rules for trench safety and made little or no effort to enforce them. He also stated in the interview that he didn't like going down into the trenches and that he had explained to his family that the organization's attitude was "either comply or go home." Jones had reason to be grateful to the organization as Pro-Green's, an overseas-owned company with over 50 employees, was paying for his four-year project management degree course at a prestigious University. Chinvee later learned that the company's safety manager had left over three months ago. Still, that person admitted that he could not recall ever giving any safety training in trench safety during his two years at Pro-Green. Following his departure, three Pro-Green supervisors attended a trench safety course, and two supervised the trench that Chinvee now found to be unsafe. Ian Forrester, the Excavator operator, working with Jones the day he died, said that he had taken a 12-hour training session on trench safety with a former employer but did not remember most of what was learned and that for the seven years he has been at Pro-Green he has not received any form safety training.

Michael Jones was not the first to die working for Pro-Green Construction Company. Thirteen years earlier, in 1991, a worker named Peter Saunders was killed in a similar accident in a 12-foot-deep trench that was neither sloped nor shored. Preceding this accident, the organization had been warned three times about trench safety - in 1985, 1986, and 1987 - and fined $50,000. The organization's owner, Camio Chinsuevy, declared to know none of this. He took over the operation in 1987, after the passing of his Father, and before this time, he had little involvement with the process of the organization. After Peter Saunders's death, Camio Chinsuevy promised to make extensive changes; he resolved that all supervisors, backhoe, and Excavator operators would learn trench safety and that there would be regular safety meetings and in-house training. He also stated that a safety director would be appointed. A written safety policy was adopted requiring all trenches over four feet deep to be sloped or shored and inspected daily. Pending Michael Jones's death in 2004, Pro-Green's Construction Company has been mentioned for nothing more than minor safety violations.

The mother of Michael Jones and his young wife were understandable irritated. His mother considered the conduct of Pro-Green construction to be "flat-out criminals." OSHA law makes it a criminal offense for an employee to cause an employee's death through "willful" violations of safety standards. A "willful" violation means that the employer displayed either intentional disregard" of safety standards or "plain indifference" towards them. A criminal charge could be brought only if OSHA could persuade the Justice Department that Camio Chinsuevy and Pro-Green's Construction Company had engaged in such a "willful" violation of the OSHA Law.

Questions:

1. Define Direct Cause. Was Pro-Green's Construction action or lack of a direct cause for the accident? State and explain why

1. List at least 3 of an employee's rights to refuse Hazardous work and state the personal circumstances that influenced Michael Jones's decision to work in such a hazardous situation.

3. Identify the occupational, Health, and Safety (OSHA) procedures Pro-Green's Construction did not or should have adhered to.

1. Discuss the union representative's role in such a situation before, during, and after the incident.