The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (which oversees Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana) recently affirmed a $35,000 fine against an employer whose foreman allowed his crew member to work while a violation continued, despite explicit instructions by a company manager to fix an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules violation.
Background
An employer’s construction crew was installing a concrete drainage pipe alongside a road. For the first two days of the project, the crew had...