Deliberate or negligent violation of workplace rules and policies
In the North American legal system and in US Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, willful violation or willful non-compliance is a violation of workplace rules and policies that occurs either deliberately or as a result of neglect.
Definition[]
Willful violation is defined as an "act done voluntarily with either an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to," the requirements of Acts, regulations, statutes or relevant workplace policies.[1][2][3] This is described with slightly different emphasis in an OSHA technical manual that a "willful violation exists under the Act where the evidence shows either an intentional violation of the Act or plain indifference to its requirements."[4]
Criminal recklessness is similarly described in Black's Law Dictionary as "Conduct whereby the actor does not desire harmful consequence but...foresees the possibility and consciously takes the risk," or alternatively as "a state of mind in which a person does not care about the consequences of his or her actions."[5]
See also[]
Actus reus – Concept in criminal law ("guilty act")
Automatism (law) – Criminal defence
Breach of duty in English law
Calculus of negligence – United States legal term
Carelessness (criminal) – Lack of awareness during a behaviour that can result in unintentional consequences
Contravention
Culpability – Measure of the degree to which an agent, such as a person, can be held morally or legally responsible for action or inaction
Criminal negligence
Depraved-heart murder – Killing where the circumstances demonstrate a "depraved indifference" to human life
Duty of care – legal standard of care in activity
Duty to rescue – Concept in tort law
Endangerment – Crime likely to produce death or injury
English tort law
Excuse – defense to criminal charges that is distinct from an exculpation
Good Samaritan law – Legal protection for rescuers
Mens rea – Concept in criminal law ("guilty mind")
Negligence – Failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances
Omission (law)
Plausible deniability – Ability to deny responsibility
Punitive damages – Damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct
Reasonable person – legal term
Recklessness (law)
Regulatory offence
Rescue doctrine
Tort law – Legal claim of civil wrong
Treble damages – Right of a court to triple the amount of the actual/compensatory damages awarded
Willful blindness – Legal term for avoiding liability (also called "willful ignorance" or "contrived ignorance")
References[]
^Report No. 2005-04-I-TX U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board Investigation Report, 2005 Refinery Explosion and Fire, BP Texas City, Texas, March 23, (15 Killed, 180 Injured), March 2007, Page 20
