From Workers Comp Insider:  

William Lattarulo owns several buildings and vacant lots in Brooklyn NY. Back in March, his workers were digging a foundation for a commercial laundry at 791 Glenmore Ave, when a more experienced contractor warned Lattarulo of an immediate hazard: the excavation had reached a level below the foundation of the adjacent building.

He advised Latturo to install underpins to make the excavation site more stable.

Instead of stopping the work, Lattarulo ordered his employees to keep digging. Moments later, the wall of the adjacent building collapsed, crushing Louro Ortega, a 30 year old laborer who had been on the job just two days.

"I don't think I killed that kid," Lattarulo is quoted as saying. "They're just looking for someone to blame for all this" (an apparent reference to the spate of construction-related fatalities in the city).

More: http://www.workerscompinsider.com/archives/000889.html 

(Main articles here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/nyregion/11cnd-contractor.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 

and here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/06/10/2008-06-10_builder_may_face_slay_rap_in_hardhat_dea.html )

 

More Employers as criminals

Owner indicted for negligent homicide in employee death
By JASON SCHREIBER
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent

KINGSTON, NH - The owner of a Kingston tree service company is facing charges for his alleged role in the death of a worker who was killed when a tree fell on him.
Maurice Buzzell, 52, of 5 Powwow River Road, was indicted by a Rockingham County Superior Court grand jury this month on one count of negligent homicide in the death of Jon Paul LaVigueur, also of Kingston.

LaVigueur, 22, was clearing trees with other workers at a job site in Kingston on Aug. 7, 2006, when he was pinned under a fallen pine tree.

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And just when you thought all of our problems were solved......

Labor inspectors root out violations along Central Valley back roads
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1001227.html#comments_here
 

In just two days, labor inspectors had reaped a dubious harvest.

At least 10 confirmed or suspected minors harvesting fruit and weeding fields. A crew using short-handled weeding tools banned under state law. Filthy toilets. No place to seek shade. Water jugs but no cups. No safety plans, or training for farmworkers on the perils of heat.
Then, when they were about to call it a day, the inspectors pulled off a country highway in east San Joaquin County, and drove just seconds down a dirt road cutting through a canopy of cherry trees. A vision from the Great Depression lay before them.

More than 30 tents rose like mushrooms under the trees. Clothes hung from branches, and empty cans and food packages were piled high. Smoke curled from one of the fire pits that had been dug into the soil.

About 100 men - migrant workers who follow crops - were sleeping on the ground by night in this orchard owned by R & J Dondero Inc., and climbing ladders by day to pick the company's cherries. Only a few overflowing portable toilets - and the orchard - were available for the men.

"We're just working people, with nowhere else to stay," one of the migrants, Ramon Jiron, 32, said apologetically in Spanish.

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60 Minutes on Combustible Dust

In case you missed last Sunday's 60 Minutes on Combustible Dust, you can watch it here on line: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/05/60minutes/main4157170.shtml