The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration this week fined an Alabama utility contractor $257,700, six months after three workers died from sewage gas while installing sewer lines.
Construction Labor Services, based in Eight Mile, near Mobile, Alabama, failed to provide training and emergency response plans for workers in confined spaces, OSHA said in a bulletin. The three men were inside a manhole, doing work for a local water and sewer utility company, when they were overcome with the gas and collapsed, according to the agency and local news reports.
The company now has two weeks to pay the fine or contest the findings.
Construction Labor Services began in 1981 and has been a major contractor for underground utility lines in the area, according to the firm’s website. Debra Bishop is the owner and president.
As of early 2025, Alabama workers’ compensation law provided up to $6,500 in burial allowance, and two-thirds of a deceased worker’s weekly wages to dependents, for up to 500 weeks, according to the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute. That’s more than Mississippi law allows but less than Georgia’s benefits.
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