"The violations ... identified ..serious risks of injury or worse"

Government safety organizations are tasked to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. Here is a recent story emphasizing the good work government safety organizations do.

 

A (metal casting)company that makes steel and aluminum parts has been hit with a proposed fine of $303,106 after federal regulators cited it for more than a dozen safety and health violations, officials said Friday.

The most serious violations: (company name omitted) didn't train employees about the purpose of energy control procedures, and it didn't provide employees with information about hazardous chemicals in their work areas, the U.S. 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration said. Both of those were considered willful violations that carried penalties of $116,022 each.

"The violations we identified at the (company name omitted) exposed their employees to serious risks of injury or worse,” said OSHA's area director.

(The company) is a foundry that has made steel and aluminum parts for more than 70 years. The company has (50+) workers, according to OSHA, and it operates in a 60,000-square-foot facility, with clients in several industries, including aerospace, defense, and oil and gas.

The company has 15 days to comply, request an informal conference with (local OSHA area director) or contest the findings before an independent commission. Conferences can result in settlements or lower penalties.

A message left for the company seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.

OSHA officials said they opened an inspection at the facility on March 9 after receiving a complaint.

In all, inspectors said they found 14 health and safety violations — two "willful," 10 "serious" and two that were considered "other than serious."

Among them:

• The company didn't ensure workers wearing prescription lenses had protective eyewear.
• The company didn't have written procedures for employees required to wear N95 respirators.
• The company didn't specifically outline rules and techniques to control hazardous energy.
• The company didn't retrain employees when there was a change in their job assignment.
• In a room where 95% sodium hydroxide, a corrosive chemical, was used, an eyewash station wasn't accessible in an emergency because it was blocked by boxes, equipment parts and drums.
• The company hadn't inspected equipment, such as an overhead crane, within the previous 12 months.
• Space in front of a 480-volt electrical panel that powered the cutoff saws and ventilation was used to store empty drums and drums used to hold excess cutoff material.

"This company must immediately address the hazards our inspectors found and take actions to prevent workers from suffering harm needlessly,” local area OSHA director said.

We chose not to include the name of the foundry in this news story because under the pertinent laws the company has a right to defend itself against the charges. In our limited experience over the past 12 years of following safety fines that are directed at aluminium companies. We have not seen any company win against a government safety organization's citations. We have seen companies successfully argue to get their monetary fine reduced.

Regarding monetary fines governments around the globe have recently increased the amount of fines. That was done because governments and labor councils recognized that the low monetary fines were either have little effect or no effect on company’s actions toward making their workplace safer. Regardless, we do feel that any of the safety violations that the company was cited for could have resulted in a worker being injured. Many of these citations are what we comment to our hosts on plant tours.

The one item many companies lack is the lack of record keeping. Several of the violations were pertaining toward record keeping. As we tell our plant hosts, “verbal instruction has to always be backed up by a written document”. As well as everytime you train a worker on a task it needs to be documented.

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