Company charged by US Gov't for a "conspiracy to obstruct justice"

Over seven years ago the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog posted a story of a fatal incident at an extrusion plant in the USA. Since then we have posted follow-up stories involving the ramifications of the management after the incident occurred. Now we are posting a recent story of the ramification of the company because of the actions of the management before and after the incident occurred.

An aluminium extrusion company was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice in the investigation surrounding the death of an employee.

The charges stem from a 2012 accident at the plant where two metal racks with hot aluminum fell on two employees, killing one worker at the time, and another worker suffered severe burns. 

Two supervisors at the plant were already individually charged, now the investigation is charging foreign owned aluminium company as a whole. 

Two managers pleaded not guilty in November. Prosecutors say they were aware of potential dangers regarding the conveyor system used to move racks in and out of an oven and pressured employees to provide false statements to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigator after the racks toppled over on the workers. 

Investigators say from April 1, 2016, through January 1, 2018, the aluminium extrusion company, through its employees, concealed felony obstruction of justice offenses from company management in (foreign country) and further failed to inform law enforcement of the commission of those offenses.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor

This blog’s mantra is not to place blame on the company nor the worker(s). But the hope that by publicizing these incidents we can prevent recurrence. With that stated we post this story so that managers and companies can understand the importance to provide truthful information to government safety organizations who are investigating an incident.

We do have to acknowledge the family, friends, and former coworkers of the deceased worker. Because of these never ending stories of the aftermath of what the aluminium company did or did not do their pain on the loss of their loved one has not lessened. We know that their pain will never cease but we hope that overtime they can focus on how their loved one lived not how he died.

The APSB will continue to follow these two judicial cases in regards to the two managers’ actions, and separately the actions of the aluminium extrusion company.