I really don’t understand the mindset of these companies… they have a horrible accident, and rather than recognize something failed and needs to be fixed, they hire lawyers to fight all the OSHA citations rather than competent/qualified safety professionals to fix it all. These citations were like “taking candy from a baby” because the company managed respiratory protection use poorly. They even relied on a safety consultant, who provided the company with a copy of OSHA’s Respiratory Protection PowerPoint presentation to serve as their “written program.” We have all seen these kinds of lapses in our work, but for a company to defend such poor efforts and to fight this all the way to the OSHRC is just a sad state of affairs – especially after it was a fatality that brought all of these issues to light!
But I find comfort that ALJ Joys saw through the incredibly lame defense put forth by this company and upheld the citations. I hope the OSHRC will do the same.
(emphasis by me)