HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A contractor operating on Guam is facing $73,219 in fines from the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly endangering employees who were installing a sewer line in Mangilao.
Superman Corp. was cited by U.S. DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, known as OSHA, after a May 2023 inspection for two serious violations, according to a news release from U.S. DOL. Workers operating in a trench allegedly were not provided any adequate means to exit within 25 feet of them, and oxygen levels inside the trench were not tested beforehand.
The inspection came two weeks after OSHA safety inspectors warned the company of hazardous conditions facing employees working in an excavation, the release stated. Trench collapses are a serious danger in the construction industry, according to the agency, and killed at least 39 workers last year.
According to the citation from OSHA, Superman Corp. was engaged in construction related to the new multifamily housing project, Paradise Court.
OSHA also cited the company for a willful violation after the agency determined Allen Kim, president of Superman Corp., failed to provide required protection from cave-ins for employees working in an excavation. Investigators learned Kim was trained previously on trenching and trench safety and had been warned repeatedly of related hazards by peers and engineers who visited the site before OSHA’s inspection, according to the release.
In addition, Kim admitted to safety officers that he was aware that motorized equipment operating near the trench was causing debris to fall in the trench and that the equipment’s vibrations increased the risk of collapse.
“Working in a trench is demanding and dangerous work that requires specific precautions and protections to keep workers safe,” OSHA Area Office Director Roger Forstner in Honolulu said in a statement.
“By running soil compactors and excavators within 20 feet of workers in the trench and failing to provide accessible ladders, Superman Corp. chose to put production before safety, endangering the lives of its employees,” he said.
Officials turn soil during a groundbreaking ceremony in November 2020 in Mangilao at the Paradise Court subdivision development.
