Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

Work Saftey

I work in an advertising agency, where there is no public sewage/water and no septic tank, so we use a composting toilet. I was in ''charge'' of checking on this compost toilet while the owner was on vacation, because I go down next to it to do server maintenance and it happened to over flow, there was human waste all over the table where the unit is kept and the basement floor (which by the way is a barn that we work in), I contacted the ''owner'' to inform him of the problem and his solution was to have me throw newspaper over this and when it dried up he would dispose of this later. First I would like to say I am a graphic designer and that is not part of my job, second cleaning up any kind of human waste is very dangerous and should be handled in a proper manner. I feel that the ''owner'' is not up to OSHA safety standards in many ways, the bath room looks like an out house and is rarely cleaned, and when it is he expects his employees to take turns cleaning it, along with the rest of the down stairs barn. He also has some of the employees working out side washing windows, planting flower and cleaning up (not what they were hired for). What can we do about this without getting fired, and could we file a suit against him?


Asked on 7/24/08, 7:33 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Doug Harhai The Law Office of Douglas Harhai, LLC

Re: Work Saftey

You have many issues in here-- potential OSHA violations, being asked to do tasks which may fall outside of what you are hired to do (I am not sure if your job descriptions are enumerated in a written document such as an employment manual), and how to resolve all of this without being terminated.

For example, the composting toilet overflow may very well be an OSHA violation. I don't work with OSHA much to be able to give you an answer, but you can go to http://www.osha.gov and use this site to contact your local OSHA office for more information (but see below first).

However, this case is somewhat of a powder keg because it involves multiple employees and there is no guarantee that the employer will not terminate one or more of you once he is either investigated by OSHA, or is approached by one or more of his employees about performing tasks which are outside of the scope of their job description. In general, in Pennsylvania an employer may terminate an employee at any time for any reason as long is it does not violate the law; for instance, he can terminate you simply because he feels like it. Here, however, you have an interplay of an OSHA (federal statute) and other general employee complaints occurring at the same time. OSHA protects those who cooperate in the filing of a report, etc. (so he would not be able to terminate you because you blew the whistle on your employer for an OSHA violation, if this is indeed an OSHA violation).

The bottom line here: given the number of possible parties involved, a potential employment claim and a federal statute, you should strategize with an employment lawyer immediately before ever calling OSHA so that you can best preserve your chances of retaining your job and/or a settlement in the event that you are terminated by your employer.

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Answered on 7/24/08, 2:27 pm


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