DOJ Eying Companies’ Management Systems To Bolster Worker Safety

A senior Justice Department (DOJ) official says prosecutors implementing a recent policy aimed at leveraging environmental laws to impose stiffer penalties for workplace violations are eyeing companies’ internal environmental management systems (EMS) and safety cultures while crafting settlements to ensure future compliance and improve attitudes toward worker safety. Assistant Attorney General John Cruden told an Oct. 26 American Bar Association Environmental and Workplace Safety Criminal Enforcement Conference that DOJ is evaluating how to bolster the use of EMS in settlements...