OSHA fines fines that would not allow employees and customers to wear masks

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration has issued a $ 136,000 fine against a Massachusetts tax preparer who allegedly banned employees from wearing masks at work amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Lynn’s Liberty Tax Service fine marks the highest punishment OSHA has imposed on COVID-19, an agency spokesman confirmed. It is probably a sign of a more aggressive application of safety at work now that the Biden administration is responsible.

Galen Blanton, regional administrator for OSHA in Boston, said in a statement that the owner of the tax service, Ariana Murrell-Rosario, demonstrated a “will refusal to implement basic guarantees ”to protect employees from coronavirus.

In a telephone interview, Murrell-Rosario admitted that he does not allow employees to wear masks and forbids customers to wear them as well. She said that masks are a “deadly” health hazard and “Leaving this country should be banned.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear masks “wherever they are around other people” to slow the spread of COVID-19. The idea that masks themselves make people sick has thrived in some corners of the internet, but public health experts have had it widely dismembered it.

Murrell-Rosario said there are usually five or six people working in each of the two offices. She said she would continue to ban the use of the mask, despite the OSHA fine.

A $ 136,000 fine may not sound too strong, but it is much higher than most OSHA sanctions issued during the Trump administration. These fines were typically in the lower five figures, even in cases of major outbreaks at meat packing plants. After four Smithfield meat packing factory workers died of COVID-19 last year, OSHA was fined just $ 13,494.

In the case of Massachusetts, the agency lifted the sanction as an “intentional” violation, which comes at a higher price than standard fines. “Voluntary” means that the employer knowingly disobeyed the law or showed “clear indifference” to workers’ health.

Many occupational safety experts have criticized the Donald Trump administration for failing to comply with these sanctions for big tickets, arguing that they could have sent a message to other employers that they must abide by safety protocols. Basic. They also said that the agency is moving too slowly in issuing fines during a public health crisis, often taking almost six months to distribute subpoenas.

In the case of Massachusetts, investigators moved faster. They opened the investigation on March 17 and quote the company three weeks later, on April 8.

OSHA regulations tend to be very specific, but there are no rules on books specifically related to COVID-19. The agency therefore issued most of its fines on the basis of the “general debt” clause, a broadly worded rule that an employer must provide a job “free from recognized dangers”.

Safety attorneys have lobbied OSHA to issue a temporary emergency standard that would require employers to follow specific virus guidelines, subject to fines. The Trump administration has not issued such a standard, and so far the Biden administration has not issued it, despite the fact that it has signaled in advance that it is likely to be.

Murrell-Rosario said none of her employees had become ill yet and that the complaints that led to the investigation probably came from customers who were told not to wear masks inside. OSHA’s initial fines are often reduced, and Murrell-Rosario said he intends to fight them.