By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
An Oklahoma contractor has agreed to pay $370,680 in penalties to avoid federal prosecution in the 2019 fatal fall of an employee in St. Joseph.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports it reached agreement with Skinner Tank Company in the accident in which an employee fell more than 50 feet to his death. OSHA says it found that Skinner Tank did not require employees to use fall protection while working on the roof of a 56-foot soybean storage tank in St. Joseph. The fatal fall occurred on October 14th of 2019.
OSHA further claims in a news release Skinner, “provided inaccurate safety information to its employees by telling them that wearing fall protection actually presented a greater hazard than not wearing it.”
OSHA made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice in the case.
“The Department of Labor pursued legal action and made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice to hold Skinner Tank Company responsible for its willful violation of safety regulations that resulted in an employee’s death,” Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago said in a written statement. “Compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s fall protection requirements is essential to prevent fatalities like the one that occurred here. To meet their legal obligations under the Act and protect their workers on the job, employers must follow the applicable federal safety and health regulations.”
Under the deferred agreement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri earlier this month, Skinner Tank, must pay a monetary penalty to the U.S. Treasury of $175,000 and a penalty to OSHA of $195,660.
“The resolution of this case sends a strong message that OSHA will hold employers accountable for willful violations of federal safety regulations that seriously or fatally injure their workers,” OSHA Region Administrator Billie Kizer in Kansas City, Missouri said in a written statement. “Each year, too many workers lose their lives from falls — the leading cause of workplace deaths in the construction industry — because employers fail to provide fall protection.”
Founded in 1982, Skinner Tank Co. is a family-operated company that builds welded steel storage tanks across the country operating out of Yale, Oklahoma.