Personal liability at work

[richh314]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

I work in the maintenance dept. for a company in PA. I repair the production equipment for which I have been trained. In an effort to save money the company has gotten rid of the third party crane repair company that was contracted to do all the repair work on our overhead cranes. And has decided to have in house Maintenance handle the repairs. We have been offered no training in this field and are flying by the seat of our pants on most repairs. They still have the crane company come in and do the mandated inspections. My question is that if something should go wrong and someone got hurt could the maintenance tech be held personally liable if it was found that the failure was something he had worked on ? or would he be protected by the company? Any help on this would be appreciated.

 

[las365]

Generally, your employer would be responsible for the damages if someone is injured because of a mistake you make as an employee.

It sounds like a call to OSHA may be in order.

 

[canhelp]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

I work in the maintenance dept. for a company in PA. I repair the production equipment for which I have been trained. In an effort to save money the company has gotten rid of the third party crane repair company that was contracted to do all the repair work on our overhead cranes. And has decided to have in house Maintenance handle the repairs. We have been offered no training in this field and are flying by the seat of our pants on most repairs. They still have the crane company come in and do the mandated inspections. My question is that if something should go wrong and someone got hurt could the maintenance tech be held personally liable if it was found that the failure was something he had worked on ? or would he be protected by the company? Any help on this would be appreciated.

possibly but they would have to show it was either an intentional act on the part of the maintenance tech or an even more difficult proof of depraved indifference, callous disregard, or reckless endangerment.
simple error or omission would not raise it to a level of personal liability.