The two incidents along with others in Miami and Las Vegas, coupled with fatal mine explosions in recent years have raised the question of whether safety standard violations that result in death should be criminally prosecuted.

In the March incident, the three contractors were cited for alleged problems associated with rigging the crane and lack of fall protection, fire protection and other hazards.

“Ultimately, the crane collapse was a failure to follow basic, but essential, construction safety processes,” said Richard Mendelson, OSHA’s area director in Manhattan. Considering this, we can’t help but think the companies got off pretty easy with $313,000 in total fines.

Such scenarios have some calling for strengthening the criminal provisions of the OSH Act to reflect its emphasis on public health and safety, and to provide the credible criminal deterrent that is needed to ensure greater compliance with worker safety laws.

In an issue brief published by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, David M. Uhlmann says, “New legislation should (1) make criminal violations of the Act felonies and provide enhanced penalties for violators; (2) expand the criminal provisions to include cases involving serious bodily injury and knowing endangerment; (3) modify the mental state requirements so that ignorance of the law is not a defense; (4) expand the scope of individual liability to include supervisors who knowingly expose their workers to unsafe conditions; and (5) provide resources to investigate and prosecute criminal violations of the OSH Act effectively.

It is a felony to commit most criminal violations of environmental laws, hazardous materials transportation laws, and many wildlife protection laws. In “Prosecuting Worker Endangerment: The Need for Stronger Criminal Penalties for Violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act,” Uhlmann argues that when criminal worker safety violations occur, they too should be eligible for felony prosecution. Especially when they result in fatalities.

Upgrading OSH Act violations to felony status is also essential for meaningful criminal enforcement to occur. From 2003 to 2008, 10 criminal cases were brought for violations of the OSH Act, despite the fact that OSHA conducted 9,838 fatality investigations during that time period, and thousands of workers died on the job each year.

Unfortunately, Uhlmann, director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program at the University of Michigan Law School, puts the onus on a do-nothing Congress. Absent action by Congress, criminal cases will remain infrequent, because federal prosecutors will not devote significant resources to cases that Congress relegates to misdemeanor status. Prosecutors occasionally will accept plea agreements to lesser included misdemeanor charges, but they rarely will initiate complex prosecutions if the most serious, readily provable offense is a misdemeanor, writes Uhlmann.

It has been 20 years since Congress amended the environmental laws, and it is long past time for it to do the same with our worker safety laws, says Uhlmann. Some workers do not have choices about where they work, either because jobs are scarce or because they have not had the educational opportunities that would enable them to seek higher-paying and safer jobs. But everyone deserves a safe place to work and the ability to come home to their families in good health.

We can do more to protect workers and ensure that all companies in the United States honor our best traditions of caring for and protecting workers. By strengthening the criminal provisions of the worker safety laws, Congress can make good on the promise of a safe workplace made 30 years ago when it enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

To read Uhlmann’s brief, go to www.acslaw.org/node/6986. We think you’ll find it compelling.