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From the North Carolina Department of Labor

The Labor Department cited Pamlico Boat and Fiberglass Repair LLC DBA Pamlico Boat and Fiberglass with seven alleged serious violations and one alleged nonserious violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of North Carolina with a total penalty of $7,750.

 Civil penalties for OSH violations are included in the Occupational Safety and Health Act of North Carolina in the General Statutes. The maximum penalty for each serious violation is $15,625. The General Statutes say that the Labor Department has to take into consideration various factors such as the gravity of the violations, the size of the business, the good faith and cooperation of the employer, and the history of previous violations.

 The penalties are in no way designed to make up for loss of life. By law, the civil money penalties collected by the N.C. Department of Labor are not the receipts of the department, but rather must be remitted to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund, which then distributes the monies to the public school system.

 The company has 15 working days from receipt of the citations to request an informal conference with the Labor Department, to file a notice of contest with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission of North Carolina (an independent board appointed by the governor to hear appeals of OSH citations), or to pay the penalty.

According to media reports from January 20 and 27, Mac Hodges Jr., 69, succumbed to burns days after a fire erupted at the boat manufacturing facility on Magnolia School Road in Washington. The fire started in an area where resin was sprayed and Hodges was the only person in the building when the fire started, according to authorities.