Quincy pays safety fine

QUINCY - Quincy agreed to pay $13,550 in fines to the state Department of Labor and Industries, after inspectors found safety violations.

The state agreed to lower the penalty from $132,400 as part of a settlement agreement with the city. The fines stem from a 2010 project to fix a drain in the city's senior center.

The department sent a safety inspector and an industrial hygienist to inspect the work done by the city, Labor and Industries spokesperson Hector Castro said. They reported 56 violations, most related to asbestos removal and not having a plan in place for people working in confined spaces.

Attorneys for city appealed the violations, stating city officials didn't realize the flooring city workers were cutting contained asbestos, according to state records. They were simply trying to access a drain so they could fix it.

"Immediately upon recognizing that there may be asbestos in the floor tile that had been cut, the city employees were told to stop working, go home and remove their clothes and wash those clothes separately from other clothes and shower themselves," according to the appeal. "The total number of employees potentially exposed to asbestos was only eight and those exposures were very brief, uneventful and isolated."

The confined spaces violations stem from not having a plan for people working in spaces large enough for workers, but not designed for continuous occupancy and with limited means for entry or exit, according to Labor and Industries. The spaces include tanks, storage bins and utility vaults.

"We have incidents every year of people getting overcome with a lack of oxygen," Castro said.

Without a plan to identify the confined spaces in the city, Castro explained the department included a list of related citations.

"They didn't have a program for providing appropriate training to people working in confined spaces. They didn't have the appropriate permits," he said. "It added up pretty quickly."

The city challenged the inspector's findings in its appeal, stating the inspector didn't witness any violations, and his investigation should have focused on the asbestos incident, rather than expanding it.

"It is clear that the inspector failed to take into consideration the good faith of the employer, the size of the workforce and the employer history," according to the appeal. "Again, the city has already taken steps to come into compliance with the violations cited. The city has put in place policies to prevent a repeat of these events."

The hearings officer for Quincy's appeal found the city committed the violations, but decided to cut the amount of fines to roughly $13,000. As part of the agreement, a Labor and Industries consultant will inspect the city's work site by Sept. 15.

"This is one of the things at (Labor and Industries) will wrestle with," Castro said. "We want a safe workplace for the employees. If we have an employer who is working with us, we'll work with them. The City of Quincy has been working to abate (the violations). This is a small community and these are high dollar amount penalties."

When the consultation is finished, the consultant will give the city a letter including their findings. If the consultant finds more violations they will give the city a deadline for when the problems need to be corrected, according to the settlement agreement.