Grieving Family Farms Face Reduced Penalties For Not Filing Paperwork Timely Under Bill

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/10/2025) Penalties would be lowered by 80 percent for family farms that don't report the workplace death of an immediate family member within eight hours under Rep. Jerry Neyer (R-Shepherd)'s HB 4017, which received testimony in the House Agriculture Committee last week.

The bill aims to ease the burden on grieving farm families when they're in the immediate aftermath of a death within their family.

"If my brother, father, or child were to – God forbid – die in a tragic accident, my first response would be caring for the people I love, not filing paperwork with the state," Neyer said in a press release.

Any workplace death is required to be reported to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) within eight hours, and in one situation, a family was fined more than $12,000 for not meeting that window when a co-owner of the farm died.

Family farms would still have the same timeframe imposed on them for reporting workplace deaths, but with a far smaller fine.