The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on April 22 that they’d be fining Disney for $13,260. In their statement, they noted that a supervisor at one of their Florida theme parks and another at one of their resorts failed to report worker injuries in a timely fashion.
One of the instances in which a worker was injured happened at Disney’s Beach Club Resort this past December. The OSHA report cited how one of the hotel employees was hurt on the job on Dec. 7 just before 8 p.m. Although they were transported to the hospital and underwent surgery soon after that, Disney apparently didn’t let OSHA know of incident until Dec. 13 at around 10 a.m.
Another incident that involved a theme park employee happened in a backstage stockroom shed at Epcot. Although that worker was transported to an Orlando hospital at 6 p.m. on Dec. 21, OSHA wasn’t notified of this until 3 p.m. on Dec. 24.
OSHA, a federal agency, stopped short of classifying these incidents as serious. They decided to fine Disney to send a message to their administrators that timely reporting of workplace incidents is critical. Both parties agreed that a $6,630 fine was a suitable penalty for theme park owners to have to pay for their management’s indiscretion in these matters.
When a worker is hurt on the job, the steps that they take after an incident occurs are important. They should report what happened to their employer and seek out immediate medical help. Injured employees should consult with a workers’ compensation attorney to find out what type of compensation for medical costs, lost wages and long-term disabilities that they may qualify for.
