The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Maine
- Level
- State
- Authority
- R.S. 1954, c. 30; P.L. 1971, c. 620; P.L. 1975, c. 519; P.L. 2013, c. 473
- Issued
- 2025-10-20 Oct. 20, 2025
- Effective
- standing; text in force throughout March 2020 to September 2021 as to the enforcement mandate and penalties (read as 2025-10-20)
- End
- standing
- In force
- Standing since Oct. 20, 2025 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesStanding duty
- Addressees
- employers (all workplaces for the sec. 42 enforcement mandate; public employers for the sec. 44-46 and 49-50 inspection, citation and penalty provisions)
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Maine DUT-ME
Operative words
The director shall cause to be enforced all laws regulating the employment of minors; all laws established for the protection of health, lives and limbs of operators in workshops and factories, on railroads and in other places; all laws regulating the payment of wages; and all laws enacted for the protection of the working classes.
Penalty
sec. 46: civil penalty of not more than $1,000 for each day of a willful or repeated violation of sec. 45 or any standard, rule or order under sec. 565; civil penalty up to $1,000 for each serious violation ('shall be assessed'); up to $1,000 for each non-serious violation; fine or imprisonment for refusing to answer the director's inquiries; sec. 49: Superior Court order restraining conditions that 'will reasonably be expected to cause death or serious physical harm'
What it required
The Bureau of Labor Standards to enforce every Maine law protecting the health and lives of workers in every workplace, to inspect public workplaces, examine 'the methods of protecting employees from danger, the safety and health of employees and sanitary conditions' (sec. 44), issue citations fixing abatement dates for violations of the general duty (sec. 45), assess civil penalties (sec. 46), restrain imminent dangers (sec. 49) and inspect on employee complaint (sec. 50).
Retrieval noteSec. 44 ('Each employer subject to this section shall make, keep and preserve, and make available to the director... such records regarding the employer's activities relating to occupational safety and health as the director may prescribe by rule') and sec. 45 ('If, upon inspection, the director or any authorized agent of the bureau finds that an employer has violated a requirement of section 561-A or any rule adopted pursuant to section 565, the director or the authorized agent of the bureau shall immediately issue a citation to the employer') are the enforcement machinery of the public-employer general duty (Ex. DUT-ME-005). The file date in the name is the compilation date.