Question: A junior employee at Pro - Green s , Michael Jones, on August 1 3 , 2 0 0 4 , was preparing a foundation
A junior employee at ProGreens Michael Jones, on August was preparing a foundation at the bottom of a feet deep trench for a sevenstory building when the rainsoaked walls gave way, and he was buried alive under the mud. The organization he worked for, ProGreens Construction Company, had a contract to build a multicomplex 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 ProGreens organization and Michael Jones, the Junior employee. One month before the incident, on Friday, August Chinvee had responded to a complaint about a hazardous trench dug by ProGreens 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 ProGreens 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 didnt like going down into the trenches and that he had explained to his family that the organizations attitude was either comply or go home. Jones had reason to be grateful to the organization as ProGreens an overseasowned company with over employees, was paying for his fouryear project management degree course at a prestigious University. Chinvee later learned that the companys 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 ProGreen. Following his departure, three ProGreen 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 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 ProGreen he has not received any form safety training. Michael Jones was not the first to die working for ProGreen Construction Company. Thirteen years earlier, in a worker named Peter Saunders was killed in a similar accident in a footdeep trench that was neither sloped nor shored. Preceding this accident, the organization had been warned three times about trench safety in and and fined $ The organizations owner, Camio Chinsuevy, declared to know none of this. He took over the operation in after the passing of his Father, and before this time, he had little involvement with the process of the organization. After Peter Saunderss 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 inhouse 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 Joness death in ProGreens 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 ProGreen construction to be flatout criminals. OSHA law makes it a criminal offense for an employee to cause an employees 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 ProGreens Construction Company had engaged in such a willful violation of the OSHA Law. List at least of an employees rights to refuse Hazardous work and state the personal circumstances that influenced Michael Joness decision to work in such a hazardous situation.
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