Posted On: August 3, 2004, 3:27 pm CDT

Posted By: Mark Zientz

I am a Florida Bar Board Certified Workers' Compensation claimant's attorney. The workers injured and killed were nothing more than slaves to this construction company and it's owners. They worked for less than documented workers, they got no social security, no unemployment and no workers' compensation coverage. This business activity won't stop until the offenders are criminally prosecuted under existing laws and jailed. Manslaughter, insurance fraud, and Federal Tax evasion are just a few of the possible charges. A stop work order and a few small OSHA fines don't cut it. This company's contracts will go to another company with the same owners that is able to produce a certificate of insurance. They will then do the same thing again, list a few employees but not all for premium purposes. Or screw the carrier or PEO when an accident happens to one of the uninsured employees by putting him on the payroll for the week of the accident and claim he was just hired, even though he has been on the job a year. But the worker can't prove it because he never got a paycheck before. And ask our Governor why Florida closed down it's division of safety and left the job of enforcing safety regs to the 8 or 9 OSHA inspectors assigned by his older brother to the entire state of Florida. It's just business as usual, except it's the year 1904 not 2004.