Regulators fined state, local government offices $125,150 for workplace safety violations

State regulators issued $125,150 in civil penalties to state, county and local governments over an eight-month period for failing to adhere to workplace safety requirements, lawmakers were told Wednesday.

The penalties were issued by Maryland Occupational Safety and Health as part of the Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act, which took effect Oct. 1, 2025. The act, named in honor of a slain parole agent, aims to toughen enforcement of safety rules for state and local government workers.

Representatives of the Maryland Department of Labor, which houses MOSH, told members of the Joint Committee on Fair Practices and State Personnel Oversight on Wednesday that the law has allowed for gains in workplace safety. But they said the situation could be improved even more with more resources.

“We were not given any additional enforcement resources to do additional public sector work as part of the [Davis Martinez] law,” said Christopher Williamson, assistant commissioner with MOSH, during a two-hour briefing on implementation of the law.

Davis Martinez was doing a routine home check on a parolee in Silver Spring in May 2024 when he was stabbed to death, becoming the first parole agent killed in the line of duty.

Subsequent investigation into his death revealed a series of workplace safety shortcomings. Those included his supervisors’ failure to check up on him for hours after he went missing. It wsa only after co-workers noticed he was missing and called police that his body was discovered. The parolee he was checking on, Emanuel Edward Sewell, has been charged with first-degree murder in Martinez’s death.

Besides requiring civil penalties against government bodies that violate workplace safety rules, the law also requires an annual report on workplace-related deaths, injuries and illnesses.

The first report, a 28-page document submitted in July to the General Assembly, said there were 40 inspections of government workplaces from Oct. 1, 2025, through May 31 of this year that resulted in penalties. The report said regulators issued civil penalties “if there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a condition that exists.”

It said 30 of the 40 inspections have been settled and closed, but that about $104,00 of the civil penalties are still owed.

In December, for example, about $19,000 in initial penalties were issued against the state Department of Transportation, but those were reduced to $12,778 after formal settlement agreements were reached. Penalties of $3,400 issued the same month against the town of Brentwood were decreased to $2,600 after a settlement.

While they were pleased that some progress has been made, committee members said one statistic showed more work is needed. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics showed that that for every 10,000 state workers in Maryland there were 66.9 violent acts, compared to a national average rate of 37 violent acts per 10,000 full-time state workers.

“I’m just dismayed looking at this chart,” said Sen. Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard and Montgomery), the Senate co-chair of the committee.

Family, loved ones of Davis Martinez honored during final bill signing of 2025

Williamson said one potential reason could be more reporting in Maryland. Although there was not data from other state to compare, he noted that some states don’t have their own agencies to do workplace safety inspections. West Virginia’s Division of Labor has a program, for example, but officials with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration conduct workplace inspections.

Hester agreed that while “Maryland is a unique state, I also don’t want us to settle for the status quo.” She said the state should look to polices in other states “that we can learn from.”

“That is a task worth doing,” said Devki Virk, commissioner with the Maryland Division of Labor and Industry, “but also one is not easily housed within our current structure within MOSH.”

Virk said most of the department’s resources are tied up doing the day-to-day enforcement work.

The state budget funds 97 positions this year for the state’s occupational safety agency. But the agency had as many as 200 positions at one point, said Christian Gobel, legislative and political coordinator for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Maryland Council 3.

“We feel that needs to be significantly raised,” Gobel said of staffing levels for inspectors. “We just need many more resources at MOSH so that they can fulfill their important mission.”

The committee also received updates on workplace violence prevention and heat standards.

Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard) said reviewing those and other standards doesn’t help when there aren’t enough workers to ensure they’re being adhered to.

“If there’s not the folks that would go in and do the inspections and have the enforcement piece of that, you’re kind of losing a lot of the momentum that would otherwise be there for implementing these new standards,” Lam said. “So that leaves us a little bit short if we’re putting in a new policy, but then no one’s enforcing it.”