A company that terminated an employee who refused to enter a 15-foot-deep trench without adequate cave-in protection has run afoul of OSHA. The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against DKS Structural Services -- doing business as Don Kennedy and Sons House Moving Co. -- and owner Jeffrey Kennedy after OSHA determined that the Huntsville, Al. company had violated Section 11(c) of the OSH Act's Section 11.

In Mississippi, the work involved gas and water lines. In Texas, sewer lines. What the two work sites had in common was that both involved trenches more than five feet deep, and neither provided its workers with protection against cave-ins.

OSHA has cited two Florida companies, Major Plumbing LLC and MAPP Construction LLC, for trenching hazards. OSHA opened an inspection after receiving a complaint in January that an excavation sidewall had collapsed and buried a worker, who sustained a broken hip and was hospitalized.