[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 54 (Thursday, April 28, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E820-E821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          WORKPLACE WRONGFUL DEATH ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 28, 2005

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, it is altogether fitting and appropriate to 
commemorate Workers' Memorial Day this year by introducing the 
``Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act of 2005.'' I am very 
pleased to join my colleague from New Jersey, Senator Jon Corzine, in 
introducing this bill aimed at saving workers lives. Senator Corzine 
and I sponsored identical legislation in the 108th Congress. The bill 
would amend the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act in 3 simple 
ways. First, it would stiffen sanctions for worker deaths caused by an 
employer's willful violations of basic safety standards. Under current 
law, the sanction is a mere misdemeanor which carries a fine of no more 
than $10,000 and a prison sentence of no more than 6 months. As the 
first librarian to become a Member of the U.S. House of 
Representatives, I can vouch for the fact that some local jurisdictions 
seek harsher penalties for failure to return a library book.
  This bill would make corporate manslaughter a felony offense, with 
the possibility of sentences that might range from no time behind bars 
to up to 10 years in prison. Upon a second offense, the maximum 
sentence could be doubled. Second, this bill would double the penalty 
for illicitly warning of an OSHA inspection, from a maximum of 6 months 
to up to 2 years in prison. Third, my bill would increase the penalty 
for lying to or misleading OSHA, from a 6 months maximum to 1 year's 
imprisonment. In all three instances, fines would be decided upon in 
accordance with title 18 of the U.S. code, which is standard criminal 
law and longstanding criminal procedure.
  The reason we need this bill is very clear: the Federal Government is 
itself guilty of gross negligence in efforts to deter corporate 
manslaughter. As David Barstow of the New York Times noted last year in 
his remarkable investigative series on worker deaths in this country, 
OSHA has an astonishing 20 year track record of failure to seek 
criminal prosecution when an employer's willful and flagrant safety 
violations lead to worker deaths. It isn't that the Department of Labor 
(DOL) doesn't know how to seek criminal sanctions. Anyone who visits 
the DOL website will see an exhaustive list of prosecutions undertaken 
by staff in the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS). From 2002 
to 2005, the prosecutions sought by OLMS fill up 111 pages, typewritten 
with a very small font. The difference is that these are prosecutions 
against union officials for a vast array of minor offenses. Contrast 
that with OSHA's failure to seek criminal prosecution in a staggering 
93 percent of worker death cases, investigated by the agency over the 
past 2 decades. These deaths were caused by an employer's gross 
negligence or willful safety violations. In other words, the employer 
placed a profit motive far, far above any concern over peoples' lives. 
In some instances, the same unscrupulous employer's pattern of 
egregious safety violations has caused multiple worker deaths over 
several years. In such cases, a misdemeanor penalty has no deterrent 
value whatsoever.
  Holding certain local union officials criminally liable for minor 
instances of alleged record falsification versus handing employers who 
commit corporate manslaughter an automatic ``get out of jail free'' 
pass is a real statement of values and priorities. We hear a great deal 
from this Republican Administration about the importance of affirming a 
``culture of life.'' Well, American workers deserve a ``culture'' of 
workplace safety that ensures they will live to go home at night and 
return to their jobs the following morning. When Congressman Tom DeLay 
was asked by an Associated Press (AP) reporter last year about the 
``Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act,'' he replied: ``The 
worst thing you could do--telling a small business person that they 
could go to prison over an OSHA violation.'' But such ridicule and 
exaggeration offends any surviving relative of a victim of corporate 
manslaughter.

  Every year, between 5000 and 6000 workers are killed-on-the-job, 
often in gruesome circumstances due to inexcusable safety violations. 
This bill is aimed at holding such grossly negligent employers 
accountable. It will not result in either wanton or reckless 
prosecutions of hapless employers. My bill is NOT a radical departure 
from current law by any stretch of the imagination. This bill simply 
corrects a glaring oversight in federal law and policy: the inability 
to pursue a felony conviction of an employer who willfully causes the 
deaths of workers. It is a moderate adjustment that is long overdue.
  Review of a recent case in my own Congressional district illuminates 
the reasons why this bill needs to be enacted. Less than a week ago, 
the contractor and owner of Big Apple Development and Construction (Big 
Apple) pleaded guilty to causing the death of a worker by failing to 
comply with OSHA regulations requiring employers to provide employees 
with fall protection equipment. The death of one worker, Angel Segovia, 
and serious injury of two others occurred, when a building collapsed on 
Fort Hamilton Parkway in May of 2004. Big Apple was a repeat safety 
violator, having already received OSHA citations in 2001 for failing to 
provide its workers with fall protection equipment. When Big Apple's 
owner and contractor, Kang Yeon Lee, is sentenced for causing the death 
of Angel Segovia, he faces a maximum of 6 months in prison under the 
current OSHA statute. But Mr. Lee also pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 
connection with concealing his failure to pay workers the prevailing 
wage on a federally funded, U.S. Postal Service construction project. 
And for mail fraud, Mr. Lee faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in 
prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 for each count of conviction. The 
contrast between a six month prison term for killing a worker and a 
twenty-year prison term for mail fraud could not be starker. Enactment 
of the ``Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act of 2005'' would 
value workers'' lives and correct such a disgraceful discrepancy.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, I would like to note for the record that the 
``Wrongful Workplace Accountability Act of 2005'' is included in its 
entirety in a broader bill I am also introducing today, the 
``Protecting America's Workers Act.'' I urge my colleagues to respect 
the lives of all American workers and ask them to join me in sponsoring 
both these bills. Millions of hard-working Americans and their families 
deserve nothing less than such essential protection.

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