ViceZilla’s Views

KBR, the once subsidiary of Haliburton is being sued by nine former employees for knowingly exposing them to sodium dichromate, a cancer causing substance, while working in Iraq. Really? KBR, the same company that supplies unsafe water to our troops in Iraq, that KBR? Somehow that just doesn’t surprise me.

KBR, like Haliburton is making money hand over fist from the war in Iraq. Their number one purpose is to make money, lots and lots of money, which thanks to Bush and Company they are achieving. So why would they be concerned about trivial stuff like safety for their employees if its going to interfere with getting the money to start rolling in? In the summer of 2003, that is exactly what happened. A choice between profit or safety had to be made. Guess which one prevailed?

As Reported by the Boston Globe:

When the American team arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2003 to repair the Qarmat Ali water injection plant, supervisors told them the orange, sand-like substance strewn around the looted facility was just a “mild irritant,” workers recall….

But the chemical turned out to be sodium dichromate, a substance so dangerous that even limited exposure greatly increases the risk of cancer. Soon, many of the 22 Americans and 100-plus Iraqis began to complain of nosebleeds, ulcers, and shortness of breath….

Because of a deadline to get the plant, a crucial part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure, these employee’s lives were put in danger all because of profit, KBR’s profit. The supervisor’s claim about the orange substance being a mild irritant was only to KBR’s bottom line if the site had to be shut down and cleaned up before work could begin. If they thought it was only a “mild irritant,” they obviously had it tested to find out what it was. But if they tested it properly, then you would think they would have found out that it was more, much more than a mild irritant. So which is KBR guilty of, negligence, or ignorance?

It may well be negligence, because under a World War 2 law called the Defense Base Act, employers are protected from employee lawsuits, except in rare cases in which it can be proven that the company intentionally harmed its employees or committed outright fraud. KBR obviously knows of this law, and may have thought that a pleading of ignorance will get them off the hook. Anything to keep those greased wheels of the profit machine turning. But their greed may be what ultimately does them in.

To avoid payroll taxes for its American employees, KBR hired the workers through two subsidiaries registered in the Cayman Islands, part of a strategy that has allowed KBR to dodge hundreds of millions of dollars in Social Security and Medicare taxes. So technically, lawyers claim that KBR is not an employer protected by federal law, but rather a third party which can be sued.

It will be interesting to watch this saga unfold as KBR obviously wants to be on both sides of the fence. They feel that money should only flow in one direction, into their bank accounts.

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Technorati Tags: KBR, Employee Safety, Sodium Dichromate, Iraq, Contractor, Haliburton

Tags: War on Terror //