The U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday that it reached a settlement with a former New York contractor cited after a worker died in a trench collapse in Brooklyn in September 2018.
WSC Group LLC agreed to pay $50,000 in penalties and will no longer perform construction work, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Luis Almonte Sanchez was killed when a portion of a masonry wall fell on him as he was performing foundation work.
OSHA cited WSC in March 2019 for willfully failing to provide adequate protective systems for employees working in trenches and for exposing workers to serious excavation hazards.
WSC contested the citations before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, but the case was put on hold pending the resolution of a criminal case against the company’s owner, Jiaxi Liu, in connection with Mr. Sanchez’s death.
Mr. Liu was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in March of this year, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. He was also convicted of defrauding the New York State Insurance Fund by making false statements about whom the company employed, the district attorney’s office said.