Analysis of Williams Construction v. OSHRC: Employment Law Case Study

This assignment analyzes the case of Williams Construction v. OSHRC, focusing on employment laws and workplace safety regulations. The case involves a construction company's petition for review of the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission's decision regarding violations of OSHA standards. The analysis highlights the legal issues surrounding the company's failure to ensure employee safety, including inadequate safety measures during pump cleaning, lack of proper instructions, removal of safety systems, and failure to provide safe working conditions. The study emphasizes the role of OSHA and OSHRC in enforcing workplace safety standards and the penalties associated with violations. The provided references support the arguments presented in the case study, covering topics like risk management, new OSHA regulations, and safety management systems.

Running head: EMPLOYMENT LAWS
Employment Laws
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EMPLOYMENT LAWS
The purpose of this assignment is to formulate a business brief regarding the case study
of Williams Construction v. OSHRC. In this regard, it is worthwhile to mention here that the
legal issue associated with the case study is regarding the petitioning for review of the Federal
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. It was observed that the violations of the
Occupational Safety and Health occurred as a result of sudden death and collapse of an employee
at the site of construction. However, the Court in this case, denied William’s Construction
Company a petition for judicial review.
In this case, it was observed that the rules and regulations as stipulated by the
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission proved to be beneficial in providing
appropriate solution (Conklin & Burgess, 2016). In this regard, it is noteworthy to mention here
that the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission were implemented as a result of
government intervention for the purpose of ensuring safety of the employees during working
hours (Shaffer & Gilbert, 2017). It is worth mentioning that the legal issue that is related to the
case was whether there was an authority on the part of Occupational Safety and Health Review
Commission to question the accountability of the involved Construction Company in relation to
the violation of the statutes and regulations formulated by the OSHA (Yu et al., 2017). It is worth
noting that from the very beginning the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH ACT) has
been introduced as the principal federal law for the private enterprises for the purpose of keeping
the workplace hazard free. Therefore, the new agencies formulated the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) – the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission
(OSHRC) for this purpose.
In this regard, violations were observed in different ways. Firstly, the company forced the
employees to clean the pumps inside the existing trench without appropriate safety measures,

2EMPLOYMENT LAWS
which can be considered as a dangerous activity (Cho et al., 2017). Secondly, the employees
were not provided with proper instructions regarding safety measures for the purpose of cleaning
the pumps (Carden, Boyd & Valenti, 2015). It was observed that there has been a removal of
hydraulic jack shoring system supporting the wall of the trench was removed (Pearce & Rusczek,
2017). Thirdly, the employees were not given prior information that the trench was removed and
therefore they were not aware of the arriving consequences. Lastly, the company failed in its part
to provide appropriate safety conditions during the working hours of the employees (Carden,
Boyd & Valenti, 2015). In this regard, the company also failed to ensure the fact that it is
important on the part of the workers to travel a more distance of 25 feet in order to reach a safe
point (Shaffer & Gilbert, 2017). In this regard, it is worthwhile to mention here that the penalties
for the violations of the standards and regulations of the OSHA proved to be sufficient in
providing appropriate solution (Shaffer & Gilbert, 2017).

3EMPLOYMENT LAWS
References:
Carden, L. L., Boyd, R. O., & Valenti, A. (2015). Risk management and corporate governance:
Safety and health work model. Southern Journal of Business and Ethics, 7, 137.
Cho, C. S., Boafo, F., Byon, Y. J., & Kim, H. (2017). Impact analysis of the new OSHA cranes
and derricks regulations on crane operation safety. KSCE Journal of Civil
Engineering, 21(1), 54-66.
Conklin, G., & Burgess, T. (2016). OCSD’s Comprehensive Facility Safety Assessment, A
Safety Improvement Success Story. Proceedings of the Water Environment
Federation, 2016(6), 1003-1006.
Pearce, N. A., & Rusczek, R. A. (2017, January). NFPA 350 Guide for Safe Confined Space
Entry and Work. In ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exposition.
American Society of Safety Engineers.
Shaffer, R. M., & Gilbert, S. G. (2017). Reducing Occupational Lead Exposures: Strengthened
Standards for a Healthy Workforce. Neurotoxicology.
Yu, M., Quddus, N., Peres, S. C., Sachdeva, S., & Mannan, M. S. (2017). Development of a
safety management system (SMS) for drilling and servicing operations within OSHA
jurisdiction area of Texas. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 50, 266-
274.