[quote name='frob' timestamp='1306960609' post='4818420']
[quote name='ChurchSkiz' timestamp='1306845020' post='4817857']
If your company is in line with OSHA, there's not really anything you can do.
Sure there is, if you actually get injured.
There's the immediate case of workers compensation. Being injured by a known hazard at the workplace gives you a strong case for any workers comp claim.
If you report a hazard, and it is documented that you reported the hazard, and then you got injured from that hazard, that is likely a very strong civil court case. The case would be against the company itself, not against OSHA. They know about a risk and chose not to address it, deeming it safe. It turns out it wasn't and somebody was injured. Even if it was within OSHA specs, the fact that it was reported as a hazard prior to the injury is important in determining liability.
Again, if there is a legitimate safety concern in your workplace then you need to let managers and supervisors know about it. If they try to fix it with new policies and the problem persists, they need to know that it still exists.
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You'd have a hell of a time proving negligence after an OSHA visit confirmed they were in compliance with safety standards. They had an OSHA visit, complied to the rules, and adopted new policies. Unless they purposely hid stuff from OSHA or were not in compliance to their own policy, you're fighting a losing battle. If workers could sue companies where OSHA deemed the process was adequate, no company would perform labor in the US.
Workers comp is a given.
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The law depends on the state.
You'd have evidence that it has been a reported problem in the past. You'd have evidence that OSHA investigated. In this case he'd have evidence that even after OSHA investigated it was still a problem, and (presumably after this discussion) evidence that he reported that the problem remained.
It would be up to a court case, but multiple reports of it being unsafe -- even if a single OSHA inspection passed -- would be pretty strong evidence against them. As was mentioned a few posts ago, there are many companies who will cover up and hide things when investigators come knocking. Passing a single OSHA inspection doesn't release them from liability.
