PHOENIX — What if your family member was killed in a workplace accident that could have been avoided?
What if the company responsible for that death was fined for safety violations, but then the fine was sharply reduced just because the company was small?
For years, that’s been happening in Arizona.
But now there are signs the Industrial Commission of Arizona, which oversees workplace safety, is moving away from these automatic, so-called “discounts on death.” The change comes after a recent ABC15 investigation, detailing how state officials have discretion on whether to grant these discounts.
For example, Pete Reveles died last year at a cattle ranch in Buckeye.
The 47-year-old father of two was working as a day laborer, digging footing for a new concrete wall when a nearby retaining wall collapsed, crushing him and another worker, beneath cement blocks.
The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health(ADOSH), which investigates workplace accidents, said the incident “could have been prevented if the employer provided training for employees on the hazards associated with the type of work.”
ADOSH did cite the employer, Arlington Cattle Company, for safety violations. But ADOSH then gave the company a 70% discount on its fine, dropping it from about $22,000 to just under $7,000.
Reveles’ wife, Covina, was in the audience at a meeting last June when the reduced fines were approved by the Industrial Commission.
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“It was gut-wrenching, to be honest,” she told ABC15.
The company was eligible for such a discount on its fines – which ADOSH refers to as an “adjustment” – because it was a small business with 15 employees.
Such reductions aren’t unusual.
A recent ABC15 investigation found ADOSH routinely gave reductions in fines to companies with fewer than 250 employees, under a federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) policy designed to minimize the financial impact on small businesses. But, as ABC15 reported, OSHA’s policy manual says those reductions are discretionary in cases where a safety violation caused a worker’s death.
In 2022, ABC15 found that ADOSH fined 13 companies for safety violations where workers died. All those businesses were considered small so they all got discounts, ranging from 20-60% based on the number of employees. The fewer employees, the larger the fine reduction.
Now, that long-standing practice appears to be changing.
Earlier this month, ADOSH cited and fined Buildco LLC, a Phoenix company, for safety violations, after a mechanic died in October under the axle of a dump truck.
An ADOSH report says the company failed to train the worker about job hazards and fined the company the full amount: $11,162. Had Buildco been allowed a discount for being a small company, it would have paid less than $4,000 for the violation. The ADOSH fine was unanimously approved by the Industrial Commission, the umbrella state agency over ADOSH.
ABC15 reached out to the company’s owner for comment by phone and email but has not heard back.
When Covina Reveles talked to ABC15 last year about her husband’s death, she hoped that speaking out would create change.
Early indications are that state officials are listening.
“Anybody dying, it should not be discounted,” she said. “It’s like basically saying their life wasn't worth anything. That’s not fair.”
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
