Decision to vacate safety citation reversed
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has reversed an administrative law judge’s decision to vacate a citation issued against Calpine Corp.
The power company owns and operates a generating plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where an employee fell to his death in December 2010, according to commission documents in Secretary of Labor v. Calpine Corp. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a one-item serious citation with a proposed penalty of $7,000, but an administrative law judge vacated the citation in May 2013 after finding that no Calpine employees were exposed to the violative condition.
The Secretary of Labor, to establish exposure to the violative condition, must show that an employee was actually exposed to the cited condition or that access was reasonably predictable, the commission noted.
“In sum, we find that Calpine assigned its employees to complete a task that would bring them into the ‘zone of danger’ posed by the unguarded platform opening,” the commission said in reversing the judge’s order and affirming the citation in a decision released Friday. “Accordingly, we conclude the judge erred in determining that the secretary failed to establish exposure as the record shows it was reasonably predictable that Calpine employees would have access to the hazard.”
A company spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
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