Welcome to CPR's first- and only-of-its-kind Crimes Against Workers Database. Here you’ll find detailed information about state criminal cases and grassroots advocacy campaigns against employers responsible for crimes against workers – leaving them dead, maimed, seriously injured or sick, or robbing them of some or all of their paychecks. You'll also find links to Google Drive folders with source materials. Search using the tools below.
You can also help us grow the database. We plan to expand the database as we discover new cases and gather new information and materials. You can help us by notifying us of new incidents or additional information about incidents already in the database. To let us know about an incident, contact CPR Senior Policy Analyst Marcha Isabelle Chaudry.
Disclaimer: Before you begin your search below, please review the database terms and conditions.
Showing 127 results
Trench Collapse | Pennsylvania | September 28, 2015
21-year-old Jacob Casher was contracted to work on a sewer line. As he worked in an 11-feet deep trench, the excavation collapsed, burying Casher under thousands of pounds of earth. Federal inspectors found the company exposed multiple employees regularly to cave-in hazards while they worked in unprotected excavations more than five feet deep. The employer […]
Wall/Building Collapse | New York | September 3, 2015
Fernando Vanegaz was killed and two other workers were injured when a wall collapsed on them. According to news reports, Michael Weiss, owner of RSBY NY Builders and another company called Park Ave Builders, had hired seven workers with little to no training to demolish a store on Myrtle Avenue. The workers were performing excavation […]
Caught in Machine | New York | July 1, 2015
Alex Smith was killed while using a skidloader with a hydraulic lift and fork attachment to prepare bales of hay for cow feed. Child labor laws prohibit minors from using such heavy equipment. Park found Smith pinned under the lift and bale of hay with the engine of the skidloader running. Autopsy revealed that Smith […]
Wage Theft | New York | June 1, 2015
Defendants stole more than $241,000 from more than 45 construction workers tasked with performing a concrete installation project at a hotel being built in Midtown Manhattan. Between June 2015 and April 2017, a number of workers were only paid part of their wages or not paid at all. The defendants diverted portions of the monies […]
Fire/ Explosion | Nebraska | April 14, 2015
Two workers, Adrian LaPour and Dallas Foulk, died in an explosion while cleaning the interior of a railroad tanker car that had been carrying “natural gasoline,” a liquid fuel produced from natural gas. The flammable gases in the tanker ignited and exploded, killing LaPour and Foulk. OSHA requires employers to take several precautionary steps before […]
Trench Collapse | New York | April 6, 2015
Carlos Moncayo died when an unsecured trench in which he was working collapsed and crushed him. Sky Materials Corp. and Harco Construction LLC managed and oversaw construction at the worksite and Cueva and Prestia were responsible for workers safety and observing basic safety precautions at the site. Domani Inspection Services, Inc., was hired to inspect […]
Fall | New York | April 1, 2015
At approximately 11:00 am, 3 employees were smoothing concrete along the edge of a building, outside of a wire cable protective fence, without harnesses or any fall protection. The owner of J&M Metrotech Development Corp., Salvatore Schirripa, saw that the wire cable fence installed by the steel subcontractor, J&M Metro General Contracting Corp., was set […]
Wage Theft | New York | February 23, 2015
Defendants failed to pay at least six employees more than $13,000 in wages.
Wage Theft | New York | January 1, 2015
In 2016, CRV was hired as a subcontractor on a federally-funded project involving a removation of Draper Hall. CRV was contracted to erect a steel framework. According to the indictment and documents filed in court, CRV and multiple individuals who operated the company misclassified workers as concrete laboreres instead of ironworkers so they could pay […]