Fluor, MMR Settle With OSHA On Whistle-Blower Claim

MMR Contractors, a Baton Rouge electrical contractor, and Fluor Corp., the Woodlands, Texas, agreed to pay an instrument fitter $17,500 in back pay and clear his personnel records to resolve findings by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration that the firms illegally terminated him for complaints about crane safety. An OSHA investigator found the worker complained numerous times to MMR, his direct employer, and to Fluor, general contractor at the Oak Grove powerplant project in Franklin, Texas, about an unsafe crane lift. Shortly after, Fluor insisted that MMR remove the worker from the site, so the subcontractor promptly terminated him. Both firms said the employee was terminated for disruptive behavior. OSHA found that the worker’s behavior was excused under the “leeway doctrine” of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act.