Workplace safety laws and regulations exist to ensure that employers, particularly those in dangerous industries, keep their employees as safe as possible. An employer’s failure to abide by such laws can and should mean serious consequences. That’s exactly what isn’t happening in North Dakota’s booming oil and gas industry.
Last Week Tonight host John Oliver spent twenty minutes talking about the problem on his show last night:
Since 2006, there has been an average of at least one death every six weeks in North Dakota’s oil fields. Yet, as Oliver explains, the lack of regulation and enforcement in North Dakota, combined with legal loopholes, have given employers little incentives to substantively address the safety epidem.
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Joshua Newville is a Minnesota employment lawyer, civil rights attorney, and mediator. Josh litigates and advises on such matters as wrongful termination, whistleblowers, discrimination, police misconduct, and more. He offers paid legal consultations and free online case reviews regarding employment law and civil rights.