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{{refimprove|date=November 2018}}


{| class="infobox" style="float:right;margin:0 0 1em 1em;width:20em;font-size:90%;clear:right;" cellspacing="5"
A whistleblower investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has found that Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc., Melville, N.Y., and its officers violated the whistleblower protection provisions of the Seaman’s Protection Act (SPA) when it retaliated against a seaman who cooperated with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG).
|+ style="text-align:center; font-size:larger;" | '''Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc'''
|-
| colspan="2" style="padding-bottom:1em;text-align:center;" |
|- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;"
| '''[[:Category:Types of business entity|Type]]'''
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" | Private corporation
|- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;"
| '''Founded'''
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" | [[New York, New York]] (1918)
|- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;"
|'''Location'''
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" | [[Melville, New York]]
|- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;"
|'''[[Industry]]'''
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" | [[Transportation]]
|- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;"
|'''[[Website]]'''
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" | [http://www.bouchardtransport.com/ www.bouchardtransport.com]
|}


'''Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc''', based in [[Melville, New York]], and founded in 1918, is a closely held family-owned company that provides oil and petroleum product transportation in the [[United States]].
OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program investigators concluded that the company’s actions constituted retaliation against the seaman for protected activity under the SPA and would dissuade a reasonable seaman from reporting safety issues.


==External links==
On Oct. 20, 2017, the barge Buster Bouchard/B. No. 255 exploded off Port Aransas, Texas, killing two Bouchard Transportation employees. One of the victims’ brother, who was also a Bouchard employee, claimed he was fired for cooperating with investigators and reporting other safety concerns to the USCG. Under the SPA, reporting alleged violations of maritime safety laws and regulations, cooperating with USCG safety investigations and furnishing information to the USCG about facts related to any marine casualty resulting in death, are protected activities.
*[http://www.bouchardtransport.com Corporate website]


The seaman engaged in protected activity beginning several days after his brother’s death, and Bouchard fired him just over three months later, OSHA said. In early January 2018, the seaman inquired about when he could return to work and received no response. They then gave him no reason for his Jan. 31, 2018, termination.


{{United States-flag shipping companies}}
OSHA has preliminarily ordered the employer to pay the seaman:
◾Back pay with interest plus compensatory damages for losses to his 401(k);
◾an additional two years of lost wages in lieu of reinstatement;
◾no less than $50,000 for emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss of reputation, and mental anguish resulting from Bouchard’s adverse employment action; and
◾no less than $200,000 in punitive damages.


[[Category:Transportation companies of the United States|Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc]]
OSHA also ordered the employer to refrain from making any adverse statements with respect to the seaman’s termination and/or any of the facts at issue in this case; and to train — within 60 days from receipt of OSHA’s Preliminary Order — its managers and employees about seamen’s rights under the SPA without fear of retaliation and provide proof of such training to OSHA.
[[Category:Companies based in Suffolk County, New York]]

[[Category:1918 establishments in New York (state)]]
“This case revealed troubling safety violations in the wake of a seaman’s death and it exemplifies how a culture of intimidation can have disastrous results for seamen,” said OSHA regional administrator Richard Mendelson. “Employers and vessel owners must know and respect that the Seaman’s Protection Act safeguards seamen’s cooperation with USCG and other safety investigations and the reporting of safety concerns.”
[[Category:Non-renewable resource companies established in 1918]]

OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of SPA and 22 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, motor vehicle safety, healthcare reform, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, and securities laws.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to help ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance.
Investigators piecing together causes of the fatal 2017 barge explosion that killed two crewmen near Port Aransas, Texas, traced a string of serious problems in the Bouchard Transportation Co. fleet, despite passing ABS surveys and Coast Guard inspections, according to the National Transportation Safety Board

The B. No. 255, a 488’ oceangoing tank barge and its 127’x37’x20’, 6,140-hp tug Buster Bouchard, were getting underway from an anchorage off Port Aransas, Texas, with a cargo of crude oil when it blew up and burned around 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2017. Zachariah Jackson, 28, of Salt Lake City, and crewmate Du’Jour Vanterpool, 26, of Houston were killed.

After Coast Guard investigators found corrosion and poor material conditions on the stricken barge, the Coast Guard took a close look at Bouchard’s entire tank barge fleet.

“As a result of these expanded inspections, which were conducted from October 2017 to December 2018, the Coast Guard issued 251 deficiencies to 25 barges and placed operational controls on 10 barges, limiting or preventing their operation until the discrepancies were corrected,” according to the NTSB report issued May 9.

“One barge was issued 66 deficiencies, and another was issued 33 deficiencies despite both being inspected by the Coast Guard and classified by ABS. In addition, 5 of the 10 barges that were issued operational controls were transporting oil in bulk and had extensive corrosion discovered within cargo tanks and along the hull,” the report says

The B. No. 255 itself had been checked by ABS surveyors and Coast Guard inspectors in months prior to the accident and approved for operation. But investigators found Coast Guard inspectors missed electrical discrepancies and other faults that had been identified earlier by ABS, but not yet corrected by the time Coast Guard inspectors came aboard.

Conditions on other Bouchard barges were examined during July 2018 Coast Guard hearings into the accident. Morgan Jackson, brother of explosion victim Zach Jackson and a former mate on the Bouchard barge B. No. 275, told how in May 2017 he was nearly overcome by fumes and incapacitated for two hours after trying to work in the aft peak of that barge with a vapor leak.

The NTSB report recommends the Coast Guard and ABS establish new policies and procedures for joint communication and sharing of information for inspecting vessels.

That could add pressure to reforming vessel inspections and how third-party surveyors and classification societies like ABS figure into safety management. The same kind of critique emerged from the investigation into the sinking of the Tote Maritime cargo ship El Faro in 2015, when investigators reported that surveys and inspections failed to find material condition problems that contributed to the sinking in Hurricane Joaquin with the loss of 33 lives.

Among its conclusions, the NTSB faulted Bouchard’s safety management system (SMS) and maintenance processes, and recommended the company work with an independent third party to evaluate the SMS “to identify the areas that allowed for the poor mechanical and structural condition of the B. No. 255 and revise the SMS to address identified deficiencies.”

Likewise, the NTSB called on the Coast Guard to take a close look at how its inspections are done, and to better coordinate that work with ABS surveyors looking at the same vessels. In the case of B. No. 255, an annual Coast Guard inspection in May 2016 found no problems, “despite the fact that an ABS survey 3 three months prior had found numerous discrepancies with the vessel’s electrical system—discrepancies that were not documented as corrected until June 2016, a month and a half after the Coast Guard’s inspection.

The next annual inspection during May 2017 again found no discrepancies. But nine days before an inspection by Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) found that 50% of the hull coating had failed, with corrosion where there was no coating. Bouchard Transportation’s own internal audit during that same timeframe spotted several areas of concern in need of immediate repair.

NTSB investigators say they learned that the Coast Guard an ABS had no detailed communication about deficiencies in the months prior to the explosion.

“Had the Coast Guard marine inspector who conducted the annual inspection in May 2017 been in contact with the ABS surveyor who attended B. No. 255 in March of that year and been aware of the previous survey findings, the inspector may have expanded the annual inspection,” the report says. “An expanded inspection could have identified discrepancies and improved the overall condition of the barge.”

Among its recommendations, the NTSB report calls for the Coast Guard and Abs to establish “joint policy and procedures to share information, including all results and findings from audits, surveys, examinations, inspections, and other applicable activities related to vessel safety.”

Revision as of 20:51, 24 January 2020

Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc
Type Private corporation
Founded New York, New York (1918)
Location Melville, New York
Industry Transportation
Website www.bouchardtransport.com

Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc, based in Melville, New York, and founded in 1918, is a closely held family-owned company that provides oil and petroleum product transportation in the United States.


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