November 1, 2023 - Respondent violated 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(a)(1) when its excavation at the worksite did not meet required specifications to ensure employees were protected from cave-ins. The Respondent should have known about the existence of the hazard created by the violation. It was company policy for the project superintendent to ensure and enforce safety standards at the worksite, and the company’s project superintendent was not present at the worksite until after the violation was discovered by the company safety director and the Complainant safety investigator. Because the employee conduct was foreseeable and Respondent’s policies using supervisory employees to prevent such conduct were not followed, Respondent should have known of the violation. Therefore, Respondent’s affirmative defense of unforeseeable employee misconduct does not prevail.