Free Essay Sample: Fatality Accident

The main purpose of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is to create a safe working environment by providing education, and training to those who are working. They have rules that guide employers on how to protect their employees from fatal incidents. OSHA conducts inspections in order to identify any type of health and safety hazards and they try to correct them before they can cause injuries to the employees. In this context, this discussion will review the penalties that OSHA imposes to facilities that are found to be disregarding OSHA's rules and regulations. Penalties imposed by OSHA may vary depending on the citation.

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Prior to the inspection conducted by OSHA, there were several incidents that occurred in our facility. There were several reports that the administration was dealing in smuggling of fake cash and that they were offering to trade some of the employees to work in those smuggling companies. This incident resulted to a lot of tension among us as the employees which resulted to slow growth in the company. This deal later went south and we experienced the death of one of our employees because our employer had started to withdraw from the fake cash deal. "In the event that you bet with the lives of your workers and one of them is killed, you stand a chance of a half a year in prison." (Gerkin et al., 2017)

The main function of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is to punish the guilty of their unlawful behavior. They are also involved in controlling, and preventing crime. In the case where the fake cash is involved, the United States Department of Justice would be involved in order to ensure that justice is served to the other employees and to ensure that none of them is recruited in such dealings. They would also be involved to bring justice to the family of the employee that was killed by ensuring that the involved parties face the consequences according to the laws. However, before we involved the Department of Justice, we as the employees conducted our own research and we gathered all the information about our employer's activities and we were sure that they were dealing in fake cash.

The main individuals that would face the criminal charges were the Human Resource Manager, and the head of finances. They engaged in off hour's meetings with the employer which lead them to be his accomplice in this dealings. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) act of 1970 a less serious action like this of being an accomplice, they can be charged with a fine of not more than $10,000 or detained for not over a half year.

In this case, the employer being the reason for the death of his employee through the illegal trading with fake cash, he would face a maximum prison of not less than five years and a fine of up to $100,000 or even both depending on the court decision. The company could therefore, face an even higher fine of up to $500,000 and this would lead to the collapse of the company as many of the employees would resign. In the long run the company would go bankrupt which would lead to closure of the company due to factors that could be avoided if the employer was self-disciplined, and if he had respect for his employees.

If I was facing any of the criminal charges, I would defend myself at all cost by arguing that even though I worked in that company for several years, I had no knowledge of any illegal activities that were going on in the higher department because my job was to report during the office hours and provide my services to the best I could leave and to leave work during the off hours without any type of relations with the head departments.

The main function of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) is mainly to conduct hearing of the work place in order to ensure that there is justice in the work place. By contacting OSHRC and providing them with the evidence even from other employees which would lead to better provision of justice to us as the employees.

In conclusion, the penalties from violating OSHA rules and regulations should increase depending on the charges involved. Continued insignificant punishments cannot compensate when the victim involved is either severely injured or dead. This would only be considered as a minor punishment.

Reference

Gerkin, P. M., (2017). Maintaining the Failure of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: State-Corporate Crime through Tolerance and Permission. State Crime Journal, 6(2), 241-264. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/statecrime.6.2.0241