OSHA inspection following worker complaint leads to $170,000 in fines for New Jersey printer that exposed workers to machine guarding and other hazard

OSHA fined AFL Quality Inc., doing business as AFL Web Printing, $170,000 and cited the company for 26 safety and health violations following an inspection in response to an employee complaint about hazards at its Voorhees, N.J., facility. AFL was cited for willfully violating OSHA's machine guarding standard. The company was also cited for repeat violations for failing to use listed or labeled equipment, and failing to conduct a periodic inspection of lockout/tagout procedures for energy sources to safeguard workers from the unexpected startup of machinery during servicing or maintenance. Additional serious violations included failing to properly store gas containers; failing to provide employees with chemical-resistant gloves, safety goggles and face shields; and failing to remove damaged or defective items.

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Colorado food company and subcontractor fined $300,000 for chemical and other hazards

OSHA cited Meadow Gold Dairies of Englewood, Colo., with 43 violations and subcontractor Tolin Mechanical of Denver with four violations following an inspection conducted under OSHA's Site-Specific Targeting for high hazard work sites, as well as its National Emphasis Program on facilities with hazardous chemicals. Meadow Gold was fined $300,300 for violations that included willfully exposing employees to a potential hazardous release of anhydrous ammonia due to a failure to implement a required mechanical integrity program. The company was also cited with a repeat violation for hazards associated with inadequate procedures for de-energizing equipment (lockout/tagout) prior to performing maintenance activity. Tolin Mechanical was fined $26,000 and cited for failing to properly train employees on emergency procedures and failing to ensure employees had adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

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Two employers fined more than $600,000 after four workers suffer amputations

OSHA fined Quality Stamping Products Co. $426,100 and cited the company for 27 safety and health violations, including one willful violation for failing to report two amputation injuries that occurred at the company's metal stamping plant in Cleveland. Two employees had fingers severed and crushed while operating mechanical power presses in the plant prior to OSHA's January inspection. As a result, the company was cited for a total of nine willful safety violations, which also included failing to train press operators in safe work methods and failing to ensure the flywheels on the mechanical power presses were adequately guarded. The company was also cited with one willful health violation for its lack of proper chemical hazard communication and training.

OSHA fined T & D Metal Products LLC $214,830 and cited the company with four safety violations, after two workers suffered amputation injuries at the company’s Watseka, Ill., metal stamping facility. Inspectors found that the company willfully disregarded the law’s requirements by failing to lock out/tag out hazardous energy sources prior to performing maintenance operations and to have point-of-operation guarding on two press brakes that caused the worker amputations in two separate incidents. OSHA also cited the company with a serious safety violation for failing to use safety blocks when dies were being adjusted and repaired. Prior to this inspection, the company had been cited by OSHA for 47 violations since 1988.

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Steel manufacturer fined more than $500,000 for repeatedly exposing workers to fall and machine hazards

OSHA cited steel manufacturer Republic Engineered Products Inc. in Lorain, Ohio, for seven willful and three repeat safety violations, with penalties of $563,000, for failing to protect workers from fall hazards and failing to implement adequate lockout/tagout procedures to prevent injury from hazardous equipment. The company also has been placed in OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which focuses enforcement resources on employers that have demonstrated indifference to their OSH Act obligations by committing willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations.

OSHA began the inspection of the Lorain facility after a worker who fell 9 feet from a coil transfer car was hospitalized with a broken pelvis. Willful violations were cited for exposing employees to falls from the car and an unguarded platform, and for failing to affix lockout/tagout devices to control the unexpected energizing of equipment. Repeat violations were cited for failure to train employees in lockout/tagout procedures; specify the procedural steps necessary to lock out electrical, hydraulic and gravitational energy sources for the coil transfer car; and isolate all hazardous energy sources.

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