‘HB104 - Giving Business Owners the Chance of Penalty Forgiveness ’
(ANNAPOLIS) -- “It’s time that Maryland became more friendly to business, and the Penalty Forgiveness Bill is a great place to start,” stated Delegate Mike McDermott (R - Worcester & Wicomico Counties). Delegate McDermott recently filed HB-104, titled “Occupational Safety and Health - Good Faith Actions by Business Owners - Penalty Forgiveness.” This bill creates a ‘forgiveness period’ wherby a business owner who is found in violation of certain codes can be exempt from recieving a fine if the code violations are corrected in a reasonable time period.
“My colleagues and I have received many complaints from the business community concerning heavy handed actions taken against them for minor violations which are easily repaired. In most instances, corrections were made soon after, but fines were levied nonetheless. When a business owner operates in ‘Good Faith,’ the state should be prepared to forgive penalties for minor violations” stated Delegate McDermott. Currently, as the Maryland law stands, a business owner can still be fined for code violations even if the owner corrects those violations in a timely fashion.
HB-104 is scheduled to be heard on January 31st in the Economic Matters Committee at 1:00pm.
8 comments:
Don't stop with OSH...there are so many regulatory agencies. Wait until you've been victimized by DLLR. Did you know they could place liens on you, your business, and property with out notification of right to appeal ? Plain and simple, most state employees have a "we are always right " , and "it's us versus the public".
The legislature needs to take another look at the powers given to state agencies
Holy Cow!!! Ireton will lose his mind, the city will lose a small fortune in fines.
Thanks Mike for standing up for the peoples rights.
As it stands in MD even if you have a current written safety program and training classes for your employee's that they have signed off, if they go out on a jobsite and do not follow up with what they have been taught in those classes Mosh does not care. They will fine the employer even though the training was given. You can show them 100's of pages of documented training the employee can tell them they knew better but the boss still gets the fine. So when you have a job that the customer is being charged $600 for and a govt employee tells you that you now owe them tens of thousands of dollars in fines why would anyone in their right mind hire anyone to work for them in the great state of MD.Sure you can go contest the fines and get it reduced on 1st offense, another day wasted and still owe thousands even in reduced penalties. If I have to be out on every job personally then whats the need of having employee's? Might just as well do it myself and only do the work I can do by myself which is what I have done. More jobs gone on the shore but less hassle for me.
The law should be changed so that if the employee breaks the rules they should be responsible for the fines IF there is a clear written company policy to which they have signed off on AND the company has given them all the materials and safety equipment to work with.
11:24, if that were my company I would have an employment agreement that said any violation of safety regs, etc. by an employee results in the employee reimbursing me for the fine. Dock the paycheck. If I put them through training and they did it again, I'd fire their a$$es.
Employees have a responsibility to their employer, their co-workers and others they come in contact with. An honest mistake is one thing. Negligence and willfully not following the rules is a cause for action.
11:24, agree and disagree. It's your job to get the money out of your employee, not the government's, for stuff like this.
When my son was 13, he broke a neighbor's window with a ball (cliche, I know.) As the parent, I made good with the neighbor, then my son had to work all summer to pay me back, which was tough since at 13, all he could do was odd jobs.
That was 35 years ago, but the principle should be the same today, whether it's a kid, a tenant, an employee. If they are under something you are responsible for - a family, a property, a company - you're responsible and if it's their screw up, you hold them responsible.
3:42 I do have that the employee is responsible for the fine in the handbook and the Mosh guy laughed real hard at that one, said try getting that. Its not enforceable. Even if it was how many deductions would I actual get before they quit? Regardless when a govt agency hits a small company, most of us can't absorb that kind of hit. Contrary to a lot of peoples thinking we are not flush with cash laying around.Then after you go thru the hearings and get your final penalty charge you have a max of 15 days to pay it or they add another 17% to it.
3:49 your talking apples vs oranges here. A 40 year old trained employee I do not feel is the same as a 13yo boy. They knew what they were doing was wrong, they had all of the supplied safety gear on the truck just refused to use it. I had to drive over an hour 1 way to meet the inspector because they lied to him and told him I did not supply any of the nneded gear. I walked over to the truck and pulled everything out of the bins and insisted he take pictures right then to show the stuff was on the truck. It helped reduce the penalties but it did not get rid of them. To make matters worse now if someone in my employ should get caught doing anything remotely similar in the future it would put me totally out of business because the way I understand it is there are no adjustments to the penalties 2nd time. It is not a chance I will take from here on out. I will just go back to working for myself by myself, that way if I get a fine I know I am the one that caused it.
Gov't.... the only legal mafia in the world. Pay them enough money and they will allow you to do what you want. Try to get out of it and they will break you up physically or financially.
Thing is, to make an hourly $20 employee responsible for a $5,000.00 fine is a losing proposition off the bat. He will quit and go to another state. The employer is left with the "violation" until the fine is paid by the ex employee. That's another reason we have so many folks working for cash instead of being "on the books" and paying taxes.
We need to keep feeding the tax base, but with garnishments for child support and these fines, no one can afford to work for over the counter wages and still pay the rent and groceries. This is a dilemma that needs solving.
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