Business Management

1. What are the legal issues in this case? What did the appeals court decide? Legal issues involved with this case were if SeaWorld had violated the General Duty Clause of the OSHS Act of 1970, and if there were abatement procedures to minimize the risk but without altering the nature of business of SeaWorld. The Appeals court decided that SeaWorld violated the General Duty Clause and that there were abatements made to minimize those risks without altering the nature of the business.

2. What things must be shown in order to establish a violation under the general duty clause of the OSH Act? How are each of these elements satisfied in this case?

The elements were, an activity or condition in the employers workplace presented a hazard to an employee, either the employer or the industry recognized the condition or activity as a hazard, the hazard was likely or did actually cause injury or death, feasible means to eliminate or materially reduce the hazard were present.

SeaWorld did recognize that both lines of work had hazards with working with killer whales, the industry also recognized the hazards when they had incident reports made with the whales, the killer whales had caused previous deaths, SeaWorld made new safety protocols and training sessions to deal with the hazards.

3. This case involves an unusual hazard faced by employees in a business that produces a unique form of entertainment. Legally speaking, should any of that matter? Should OSHA be able to regulate safety in the entertainment industry in the same manner as any other industry? Why or why not? If so, should this also extend to the realm of professional sports? Why or why not?

SeaWorld had argued that “when some risk is inherent in a business activity, that risk cannot constitute a “recognized hazard”.”And also stated that since the OSHA doesn't cover the NFL then it should not cover SeaWorlds entertainment as well. Different than parts of SeaWorld are going to be covered by OSHA so the shows should still be covered under OSHA. If SeaWorld wants this “exemption” then other large companies would start calling themselves “entertainment” businesses as well.