State labor officials regularly lightened penalties on companies cited for violations linked to worker deaths, according to an investigation by the Charlotte Observer.
The investigation analyzed data from 2022 and 2023, and found the state negotiated down penalties for three construction companies in Mecklenburg County, each of which experienced worker deaths and received safety citations.
Businesses can ask for lower penalties in North Carolina and frequently do so. Pat Sullivan, assistant deputy commissioner of Occupational Safety and Health Division, told the Observer the state often agrees to lower penalties because it’s the fastest way to get employers to make improvements. As part of agreements, OSH will reduce penalties in exchange for more action from employers.
One company was cited for three serious violations in January 2023 after scaffolding collapsed and killed three men at a building site in Charlotte. State officials reduced the penalty from $43,500 to $29,004.
The state doesn't always reduce fines. In a 2022 incident in which a worker at Jameson Quinn Farms in Cove City was pulled into a tobacco harvesting machine while trying to unjam it, the state did not lower it's $14,600 penalty, but the case remains open.
