LYNN, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A Lawrence Superior Court judge sided with the City of Lynn and ordered for a local tax preparation business to shut down because it is believed the owner refused for employees and customers to wear a mask inside.
The judge ruled in favor on Monday, declaring the Lewis Street tax services agency must close immediately.
In April, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Liberty Tax Service owner Ariana Murrell-Rosario $136,000 for “willfully failing to develop and implement measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.”
"This employer's willful refusal to implement basic safeguards places her employees at an increased risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus," said OSHA Regional Administrator Galen Blanton in Boston. "Stopping the spread of this virus requires business' support in implementing COVID-19 Prevention Programs, and ensuring that staff and customers wear face coverings and maintain physical distance from each other."
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Murrell-Rosario stated that neither she, nor her employees, have gotten sick.
She said she is "following a scientific model that is scientifically proven to work. Then, what's the issue?"
According to OSHA, Liberty Tax Service also failed to "to provide adequate means of ventilation at the workplace and to implement controls such as physical barriers, pre-shift screening of employees, enhanced cleaning and other methods to reduce the potential for person-to-person transmission of the virus."
WBZ NewsRadio's Tim Dunn (@ConsiderMeDunn) reports:
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