I used to work in a neighborhood recycling center.
We bought copper and other metal scrap. We got a letter
asking us if we would volunteer to have our blood tested
for lead. Handling scrap material is hard work. At the
end of the day you want to go home, not take a blood test
so we ignored the letter. We got a couple of more
letters and didn't pay any attention since it was a
request for voluntary action.
A couple of months later we got a Labor and
Industries inspection. Talk about mean, vindictive
people. The L & I inspector was doing her best to
intimidate knowing full well she was operating within the
boundaries of the law but pressing overbearing and
oppressive behavior as far as she could.
We were submitted to a series of inspections as we met
each one of the terms of inspections. We asked the L & I
representative why she chose our business and she said it
was an anonymous complaint. If you read the state code,
most agencies are bound by law to investigate anonymous
complaints. After ten thousand dollars in fines,
interviews with each employee, installing new water
systems, writing safety manuals, installing railings we
asked the L & I representative once again why she had
chose our business and she admitted the anonymous
complaint came from her office because we had not
volunteered to have our blood tested for lead.
L & I was not interested in anyone's safety. Their
attitude demonstrated they could care less about the
public they were serving but and they admitted to their
own objectives when the L & I person let go it was the
lead tests that prompted the investigation. It was not a
customer or employee of the neighborhood recycling center
as one would suspect.
I think the only reason the L & I rep broke down at
the end and told us was what she did was because she had
pushed her intimidation techniques too far a couple of
times and we called her on it, putting her attempts at
job perfection in question. You could just tell by her
responses a couple of times that she was caught off
guard. Also she was probably impressed that we had gone
to extraordinary safety lengths of which she had probably
not run into with other businesses, such as organic
filtered dust mask for glass breaking, fire
extinguishers, first aid kits, safety, goggles, etc.
