Two local businesses have been fined for worker deaths.
The N.C. Department of Labor has announced Harvey Fertilizer and Gas, the parent company of Cashwell & Jones, has been ordered to pay a total penalty of $9,000 for an April 14th accident at Cashwell & Jones just west of Mount Olive. According to the initial N.C.D.O.L. report, workers struck an overhead power line while attempting to install a flag pole. One worker was killed and two others were injured.
In the second separate incident, a worker for JNS Construction was killed when they fell from a scaffold at a construction site on Lynn Drive in La Grange on May 10th. For this death, N.C. D.O.L. has ordered JNS Construction to pay a total penalty of $1,650.
In both cases, the N.C. Department of Labor says the penalties are in no way designed to make up for loss of life.
Both Harvey Fertilizer and Gas Co. and JNS Construction Inc. have 15 working days from receipt of the citations to request an informal conference with the Labor Department, to file a notice of contest with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission of North Carolina (an independent board appointed by the governor to hear appeals of OSH citations), or to pay the penalty.
