Im not sure of the OSHA rules down stateside, but up in Canada(Ontario at least) supervisors can be fined up to 25 k if somenone is hurt on the job.
My question is do you have insurance for that , is there a policy like doctors have for malpractice or I think omissions and something for CPA’s ( totally guessing on that one).
Declan
I used to supervise hourly workers in an industrial environment in the USA, and I’ve spent a year in Ontario telling supervisors what to do (but not supervising them).
Short answer: no.
In the States (meaning Michigan here), the company assumes responsibility. (MI)OSHA won’t fine supervisors; it’s the company’s responsibility to ensure that supervisors follow the law, and then the company’s fault if that doesn’t happen. That doesn’t shield anyone from criminal liability, though, but that’s an exceptionally rare occurrence (that’s Enron class of crimes).
Now in Ontario, the distinction isn’t only “is someone hurt on the job.” People are hurt on the job all the time. It matters why and how the person was hurt, and what the severity was. Typically the MOL on gets involved for lost work day cases, and only where the company is responsible. In my company, it’s very close to 100% the employee fault every single time. In any case, once fault is established, the MOL determines if rules/laws/regulations were broken by the company, whether it was negligent, and degree of severity. In most cases, a fine isn’t given without a previous history.
The only time a supervisor would be held accountable would be for cases where he negligently endangered life or limb. The welder blows himself up in an enclosed space because he didn’t get an enclosed space permit nor burn permit? He willingly broke the rules, and in the end, the company isn’t punished. If a supervisor orders someone into a manlift without a harness, and the person falls, then the supervisor would share responsibility with the employee (who knows that he’s responsible for his own safety).
I don’t know if insurance is available in Ontario. I know that MOL can fine the supervisor; I always assumed the company would pay the fine, but I don’t know that.
I was a leadman (hourly, had a real floor job most of the time, filled in for the salaried supervisor when he’s not in, informal point of contact for other floor workers) at a factory with very high injury potential.
I didn’t have an insurance policy, I wasn’t aware of anyone who did, and supervisor fines weren’t dealt with at all during our training. We had a series of detailed policies to follow in the event of injury, and we were given the impression that as long as we followed the policies there wouldn’t be any personal liability. We did, however, get a newsletter regularly (I think it was called Supervisor Bulletin or something) that often covered court cases about OSHA fines.
Obviously I’d only be worried about tort liability if I behaved negligently and criminal liability if I behaved criminally; it just doesn’t seem to be common to sue a supervisor the way many people sue doctors.
Workers’ compensation laws will vary wildly from state to state.
I do know that in California, WC is basically a no-fault insurance policy. Someone gets hurt, they get medical treatment. Done. No assignation of fault, no “the employee should have…” or anything like that.
Pretty much the only time anyone starts to think about liability is if there’s a pattern of employees being gravely injured at a particular task, or if someone is killed, and even then, there’s a pretty high bar - unless someone can prove that the employer did something like sabotage safety equipment, or threw workers into a running machine, there’s no liability.
Except that’s the wrong kind of insurance. The OP is asking if there’s a such thing as a personal liability insurance for the supervisor of hourly personnel, in the event that OSHA or some other state/provincial/federal organization fines the supervisor directly (i.e., not the employer, but the supervisor) for some type of safety violation. The OP’s also heard (as have I) that the Ministry of Labor (the Ontario OSHA equivalent) will fine supervisors directly for employee injuries, and asks if that’s the case in the 'States (no it’s not, at least not in Michigan).
Remember, OSHA isn’t brought into workplace injuries unless there’s an “OSHA-reportable” case (similar requirement in Ontario). Typically this is a lost work day case or other grave injury. If someone is off and receiving to worker’s comp, it may or may not be the result of an OSHA-reportable case. It may be the same event, but they’re two completely different, unrelated organizations.
This came up as a result of one of our monthly safety talks, the way it works as stated by our supes, is that the company gets a fine, the supe gets a fine and probably the worker can get a fine depending on his or her negligence. One of the quotes was that the company cannot pay the supervisor fine, if its handed down.
What determines the MOL to levy the fines is a good question, I would be wondering if there was a range of fines up to the 25 k i mentioned, but for the most part I cant see the supervisors walking around with 25 k burning in their pockets, it has to come from somewhere , so I was wondering if they had access to an insurance policy for this sort of thing.
Declan