Discord Between OSHA And Employer Results In $1.9M Penalty

In eight previous visits since 2011, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) cited a manufacturer for 60 violations that resulted in proposed penalties of over $500,000. 

By, Robert Box

In eight previous visits since 2011, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) cited a manufacturer for 60 violations that resulted in proposed penalties of over $500,000. According to OSHA, the employer has continued to defiantly do little to address health and safety concerns at the facility.

Aluminum Shapes LLC is a New Jersey manufacturing company that melts scrap metal and shapes, punches holes, performs precision cuts and welds on the metal using over 200 pieces of fabrication equipment. Unfortunately, Aluminum Shapes does not do enough to “prioritize worker safety and health,” according to Robert Kulick, OSHA’s regional administrator in New York.

OSHA visited Aluminum Shapes for the ninth time in six years in February of this year. This time, the agency alleges to have seen a host of unabated violations from previous visits, including safety issues such as fall hazards, lack of stair rails, lack of machine guarding, and electrical hazards.

These recurring issues are called “Repeat” violations. Employers pay up to $126,749 for each repeat violation, and they pay the same maximum amount for “Willful” violations. A willful violation is a violation in which the employer either knowingly failed to comply with a legal requirement (purposeful disregard) or acted with plain indifference to worker safety.

OSHA issued willful citations to Aluminum Shapes for failure to:

• Provide appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Conduct air monitoring prior to permit-required confined space entry.
• Have an attendant during permit-required confined space entry.
• Complete a required confined space entry permit to identify, evaluate and control hazards in the space.
• Provide confined space training.
• Utilize proper Lockout/Tagout (Control of Hazardous Energy) Procedures
• Provide workers with locks and hardware to lock out equipment being serviced, maintained, or repaired.
• Lack of specific procedures for the use of blocking devices
• Utilize group lockout procedures.
• Train workers in Lockout/Tagout

During the 2017 inspection, OSHA was able to discover that two workers had been hospitalized in two separate incidents.

The first incident involved workers entering a permit-required confined space (tank) to drain residual sludge, which contained aluminum oxide, decomposed metal, and dehydrated sodium hydroxide. The workers exited the tank and complained to supervisors that they were experiencing burns from the chemicals as they were attempting to wash off affected skin. Aluminum Shapes supervisors allegedly directed the workers to reenter the tank and continue the job, which resulted in further chemical burns and one hospitalized worker, according to OSHA.

The other incident that resulted in a hospitalized worker allegedly involved an unguarded metal fabrication machine that caught a worker in its moving parts, breaking the worker’s pelvis.

OSHA’s citation of Aluminum Shapes, LLC, issued on July 20, 2017 referenced 94 violations allegedly found by the agency, totaling $1,922,895 in proposed penalties. The employer has 15 working days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to contest the findings before an independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Robert Box is the owner of Safety First Consulting and is an exclusive contributor to SM Corridor News. Box helps businesses identify OSHA compliance issues in their workplaces, manage their safety programs and become accountable for the results. In addition to offering custom written safety programs for companies, Safety First Consulting provides required safety training, industrial hygiene sampling, noise sampling and workplace inspections. You can read more from Robert Box under Business.